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A.  C.  McCLURG   AND  CO. 
Chicago. 


MEANS   AND    ENDS 
OF  EDUCATION 


BY 

j!  i/ SPALDING 

J  Hi 

Uistiop  of  IJcorta 


WHO   BRINGETH    MANY   THINGS, 
FOR    EACH   ONE   SOMETHING   BRINGS 


THIRD    EDITION' 

CHICAGO 

A.    C.    McCLURG   &   CO. 

1901 


S"7:>a~ 


Copyright 

By  A.  C.  McClurg  &  Co. 

a.d.  1895 


CONTENTS. 


Chapter  Page 

I.    Truth  and  Love 7 

II.    Truth  and  Love 36 

III.  The  Making  of  One's  Self 68 

IV.  Woman  and  Education 100 

V.    The    Scope    of    Public-School  Educa- 
tion       131 

VI.    The  Religious  Element  in  Education  151 

VII.    The  Higher  Education 181 


MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 


CHAPTER   I. 

TRUTH  AND  LOVE. 

None  of  us  yet  know,  for  none  of  us  have  yet  been  taught 
in  early  youth,  what  fairy  palaces  we  may  build  of  beautiful 
thought — proof  against  all  adversity; — bright  fancies,  satis- 
fied memories,  noble  histories,  faithful  sayings,  treasure-houses 
of  precious  and  restful  thoughts  ;  which  care  cannot  disturb, 
nor  pain  make  gloomy,  nor  poverty  take  away  from  us  —  houses 
built  without  hands  for  our  souls  to  live  in.  —  Ruskin. 

Stirred  up  with  high  hopes  of  living  to  be  brave  men  and 
worthy  patriots,  dear  to  God  and  famous  to  all  ages. 

Milton. 

A  GREAT  man's  house  is  filled  chiefly  with 
menials  and  creatures  of  ceremony  ;  and 
great  libraries  contain,  for  the  most  part,  books 
as  dry  and  lifeless  as  the  dust  that  gathers  on 
them :  but  from  amidst  these  dead  leaves  an 
immortal  mind  here  and  there  looks  forth  with 
light  and  love. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  the  bank  president, 
Emerson  tells  us,  books   are   merely  so   much 


8  MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

rubbish.  But  in  his  eyes  the  flowers  also,  the 
flowing  water,  the  fresh  air,  the  floating  clouds, 
children's  voices,  the  thrill  of  love,  the  fancy's 
play,  the  mountains,  and  the  stars  are  worth- 
less. 

Not  one  in  a  hundred  who  buy  Shakspcre,  or 
Milton,  or  a  work  of  any  other  great  mind,  feels 
a  genuine  longing  to  get  at  the  secret  of  its 
power  and  truth ;  but  to  those  alone  who  feel 
this  longing  is  the  secret  revealed.  We  must 
love  the  man  of  genius,  if  we  would  have  him 
speak  to  us.  We  learn  to  know  ourselves,  not 
by  studying  the  behavior  of  matter,  but  through 
experience  of  life  and  intimate  acquaintance 
with  literature.  Our  spiritual  as  well  as  our 
physical  being  springs  from  that  of  our  ancestors. 
Freedom,  however,  gives  the  soul  the  power  not 
only  to  develop  what  it  inherits,  but  to  grow 
into  conscious  communion  with  the  thought  and 
love,  the  hope  and  faith  of  the  noble  dead,  and, 
in  thus  enlarging  itself,  to  become  the  inspiration 
and  source  of  richer  and  wider  life  for  those 
who  follow.  As  parents  are  consoled  by  the 
thought  of  surviving  in  their  descendants,  great 
minds  are  upheld  and  strengthened  in  their 
ceaseless  labors  by  the  hope  of  entering  as  an 
added  impulse  to  better  things,  from  generation 
to  generation,  into  the  lives  of  thousands.  The 
greatest  misfortune  which  can  befall    genius  is 


TRUTH  AND  LOVE.  9 

to  be  sold  to  the  advocacy  of  what  is  not  truth 
and  love  and  goodness  and  beauty.  The  proper 
translation  of  timeo  homincm  unins  libri  is 
not,  "  I  fear  a  man  of  one  book,"  but  "  I  dread 
a  man  of  one  book:"  for  he  is  sure  to  be 
narrow,  one-sided,  and  unreasonable.  The  right 
phrase  enters  at  once  into  our  spiritual  world, 
and  its  power  becomes  as  real  as  that  of  mate- 
rial objects.  The  truth  to  which  it  gives  body 
is  borne  in  upon  us  as  a  star  or  a  mountain  is 
borne  in  upon  us.  Kings  and  rich  men  live  in 
history  when  genius  happens  to  throw  the  light 
of  abiding  worlds  upon  their  ephemeral  estate. 
Carthage  is  the  typical  city  of  merchants  and 
traders.  Why  is  it  remembered?  Because 
Hannibal  was  a  warrior  and  Virgil  a  poet. 

The  strong  man  is  he  who  knows  how  and  is 
able  to  become  and  be  himself;  the  magnani- 
mous man  is  he  who,  being  strong,  knows  how 
and  is  able  to  issue  forth  from  himself,  as  from 
a  fortress,  to  guide,  protect,  encourage,  and  save 
others.  Life's  current  flows  pure  and  unimpeded 
within  him,  and  on  its  wave  his  thought  and 
love  are  borne  to  bless  his  fellowmen.  If  he 
who  gives  a  cup  of  water  in  the  right  spirit 
docs  God's  work,  so  does  he  who  sows  or  reaps, 
or  builds  or  sweeps,  or  utters  helpful  truth  or 
plays  with  children  or  cheers  the  lonely,  or  does 
any  other  fair  or  useful  thing.     Take  not  scri- 


IO        MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

ously  one  who  treats  with  derision  men  or  books 
that  have  been  deemed  worthy  of  attention  by 
the  best  minds.  He  is  false  or  foolish.  As  we 
cherish  a  human  being  for  the  courage  and  love 
he  inspires,  so  books  are  dear  to  us  for  the 
noble  thoughts  and  generous  moods  they  call 
into  being.  To  drink  the  spirit  of  a  great 
author  is  worth  more  than  a  knowledge  of 
his  teaching. 

He  who  desires  to  grow  wise  should  bring  his 
reason  to  bear  habitually  upon  what  he  sees 
and  hears  not  less  than  upon  what  he  reads ; 
for  thus  he  soon  comes  to  understand  that 
whatever  he  thinks  or  feels,  says  or  does,  what- 
ever happens  within  the  sphere  of  his  conscious 
life,  may  be  made  the  means  of  self-improve- 
ment. "  He  is  not  born  for  glory,"  says  Vau- 
venargues,  "  who  knows  not  the  worth  of  time." 
The  educational  value  of  books  lies  in  their 
power  to  set  the  intellectual  atmosphere  in 
vibration,  thereby  rousing  the  mind  to  self- 
activity;  and  those  which  have  not  this  power 
lack  vitality. 

If  in  a  whole  volume  we  find  one  passage  in 
which  truth  is  expressed  in  a  noble  and  striking 
manner,  we  have  not  read  in  vain.  To  read 
with  profit,  we  should  read  as  a  serious  student 
reads,  with  the  mind  all  alive  and  held  to  the 
subject;  for  reading  is  thinking,  and  it  is  valu- 


TRUTH  AND  LOVE.  II 

able  in  proportion  to  the  stimulus  it  gives  to 
the  exercise  of  faculty.  The  conversation  of  high 
and  ingenuous  minds  is  doubtless  as  instructive 
as  it  is  delightful,  but  it  is  seldom  in  our  power 
to  call  around  us  those  with  whom  we  should 
wish  to  hold  discourse ;  and  hence  we  go  back 
to  the  emancipated  spirits,  who  having  tran- 
scended the  bounds  of  time  and  space,  are 
wherever  they  are  desired  and  are  always  ready 
to  entertain  whoever  seeks  their  company. 
Genius  neither  can  nor  will  discover  its  secret. 
Why  his  thought  has  such  a  mould  and  such 
a  tinge  he  no  more  knows  than  why  the  flowers 
have  such  a  tint  and  such  a  perfume  ;  and  if  he 
knew  he  would  not  care  to  tell.  Nothing  is 
wholly  manifest.  In  the  most  trivial  object,  as 
in  the  simplest  word,  there  lies  a  world  of  mean- 
ing which  does  not  reveal  itself  to  a  passing 
glance.  If  therefore  thou  wouldst  come  to 
right  understanding,  consider  all  things  with  an 
awakened  and  interested  curiosity. 

When  the  mind  at  last  finds  itself  rightly  at 
home  in  its  world,  it  is  as  delighted  as  children 
making  escape  from  restraining  walls,  as  full  of 
spirit  as  colts  newly  turned  upon  the  green- 
sward. 

In  the  realm  of  truth  each  one  is  king,  and 
what  he  knows  is  as  much  his  own  as  though  he 
were  its  first  discoverer.     However  firmly  thou 


12        MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

boldest  to  thy  opinions,  if  truth  appears  on  the 
opposite  side,  throw  down  thy  arms  at  once. 
A  book  has  the  power  almost  of  a  human 
being  to  inspire  admiration  or  disgust,  love  or 
hatred.  To  be  useful  is  a  noble  thing,  to  be 
necessary  is  not  desirable.  The  youth  has  not 
enough  ambition  unless  he  has  too  much.  It 
is  difficult  to  give  lessons  in  the  art  of  pleasing 
without  teaching  that  of  lying.  The  discouraged 
are  already  vanquished.  In  judging  the  deed 
let  not  the  character  of  the  doer  influence  thy 
opinion,  for  good  is  good,  evil  evil,  by  whom- 
soever done.  When  the  author  is  rightly  in- 
spired his  words  need  not  interpretation.  They 
are  as  natural  and  as  beautiful  as  the  faces  of 
children  or  as  new-blown  flowers,  and  their  mean- 
ing is  plain.  The  spirit  and  love  of  dogmatism 
is  characteristic  of  the  imperfectly  educated.  As 
there  is  a  communion  of  saints,  there  is  a  com- 
munion of  noble  minds,  living  and  dead.  To 
speak  of  love  which  is  not  felt,  of  piety  which 
is  not  a  living  sentiment  within  us,  is  to  weaken 
both  in  ourselves  and  in  those  who  hear  us  the 
power  of  faith  and  affection.  The  best  that  has 
been  known  and  experienced  by  minds  and 
hearts  lies  asleep  in  books,  ready  to  awaken  for 
whoever  holds  the  magician's  wand.  Books 
which  at  their  first  appearance  create  a  breeze  of 
excitement,  are  forgotten  when  the  wind  falls. 


TRUTH  AND  LOVE.  I  3 

A  human  soul  rightly  uttering  itself,  in  what- 
ever age  or  country,  ceases  to  belong  to  any 
age  or  country,  and  becomes  part  of  the  uni- 
versal life  of  man.  A  sprightly  wit  may  serve 
only  to  lead  us  astray,  and  to  enmesh  us  more 
hopelessly  in  error.  Deeper  knowledge  is 
the  remedy  for  the  foolishness  of  sciolism : 
like  cures  like.  In  the  books  in  which  men 
worth  knowing  have  put  some  of  the  vital  qual- 
ity which  makes  them  worth  knowing,  there  is 
perennial  inspiration.  They  are  the  form  and 
substance  of  an  immortal  spirit  which,  in  creating 
them,  became  itself.  "  I  have  not  made  my 
book,"  says  Montaigne,  "  more  than  my  book 
has  made  me." 

Were  one  to  ask  an  acquaintance  who  knows 
men  to  point  out  the  individuals  whom  he  should 
make  his  friends,  his  request  would  probably 
receive  an  unsatisfactory  reply :  for  how,  except 
by  trial,  is  it  possible  to  say  who  will  suit  whom? 
Those  whose  friendship  would  be  valuable 
might,  for  whatever  cause,  be  disagreeable  to 
him,  as  the  greatest  and  noblest  may  be  un- 
pleasant companions.  Many  a  one  whom  we 
admire  as  he  stands  forth  in  history,  whose  words 
and  deeds  thrill  and  uplift  us,  we  should  detest 
had  we  known  him  in  life ;  and  others  to  whom 
we  might  have  been  drawn  would  have  cared 
nothing  for  us.     Between  men  and  books  there 


14         MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

is  doubtless  a  wide  difference,  though  a  good 
book  contains  the  best  of  the  life  of  some  true 
man.  But  when  we  are  asked  to  point  out  the 
books  one  should  learn  to  love,  we  are  con- 
fronted with  much  the  same  difficulty  as  had  we 
been  asked  to  name  the  persons  whom  he 
should  make  his  friends.  A  book  can  have 
worth  for  us  only  when  we  have  learned  to  love 
it ;  and  since  a  real  book,  like  a  real  man,  has 
its  proper  character,  it  is  not  easy  to  determine 
whom  it  will  please  or  displease.  Once  it  has 
taken  a  safe  place  in  literature,  it  will,  of  course, 
be  praised  by  everybody;  but  this,  like  the 
praise  of  men,  is  often  meaningless.  All  who 
read  know  something  about  the  great  books, 
but  their  knowledge,  unless  it  leads  them  to 
intimate  acquaintance  with  some  one  or  several 
of  these  books,  has  little  worth.  Books  are, 
indeed,  a  world  which  each  one  must  discover 
for  himself.  Another  may  tell  us  about  them, 
but  the  truth  and  beauty  there  is  in  them  for 
each  one,  each  one  must  find.  The  value  of 
a  book,  like  that  of  a  man,  lies  not  in  its  freedom 
from  fault,  but  in  its  qualities,  in  the  good  it 
contains.  Words  which  inspire  the  love  of 
spiritual  beauty  and  noble  action  cannot  be 
false :  the  consent  of  the  wise  places  them  in  the 
canon.  The  imperishable  goods  arc  truth,  free- 
dom, love,  and  beauty.     Valuable  alone  is  that 


TRUTH  AND  LOVE.  15 

which  enriches  and  ennobles  life.  There  are 
natures  for  whom  the  lack  of  knowledge  is  as 
painful  as  the  lack  of  food.  They  are  ahun- 
gered  and  athirst  for  it,  and  their  suffering 
impels  them  to  ceaseless  meditation  and  study, 
as  the  only  means  of  relief. 

The  self-educator's  first  and  simplest  aim 
should  be  to  learn  to  know  and  do  well  what- 
ever he  knows  and  does  ;  and  to  this  end  let 
him  often  observe  and  consider  how  rare  are 
they  who  know  anything  thoroughly  or  do 
well  any  of  the  hundred  things  which  are  part 
of  daily  life:  who  talk  well,  or  write  well,  or 
behave  well.  Herbert  Spencer  affirms  that  it 
is  better  to  learn  the  meanings  of  things  than 
the  meanings  of  words ;  but  he  loses  sight  of 
the  fact  that  the  meanings  of  things  become 
plain  only  when  things  are  clothed  in  words, 
which,  in  truth,  are  things,  being  nothing  else 
than  the  very  form  and  body  of  nature  as  it 
reveals  itself  within  the  mind  of  man.  The 
world  is  chiefly  a  mental  fact.  From  mind  it 
receives  the  forms  of  time  and  space,  the  prin- 
ciple of  causality,  color,  warmth,  and  beauty. 
Were  there  no  mind,  there  would  be  no  world. 
The  end  of  man  is  the  pursuit  of  perfection, 
through  communion  with  God,  his  fellows,  and 
nature,  by  means  of  knowledge  and  conduct,  of 
faith,  hope,  admiration,  and  love.     It  is  easy  to 


1 6        MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION 

praise  work  overmuch.  Like  money,  it  is  a 
means,  not  an  end,  and  it  is  good  or  evil  as  it  is 
made  to  help  or  harm  the  worker,  for  man  is 
an  end,  not  a  means.  The  work  which  millions 
are  still  forced  to  do  is  a  curse,  —  the  trail  of 
the  serpent  is  over  it  all,  and  no  people  has 
the  right  to  call  itself  civilized,  while  work 
which  dehumanizes  is  not  merely  permitted,  but 
encouraged. 

Let  us  not  teach  the  young  to  believe  they 
are  born  into  a  world  of  delights  and  pleasures, 
but  let  us  strive  to  enable  them  to  realize  that, 
upon  this  earth,  only  the  wise  and  good  and 
strong  can  make  themselves  really  at  home; 
that  for  the  wicked  and  the  weak  its  very  de- 
lights and  pleasures  turn  to  sorrow  and  suffer- 
ing. We  pity  the  hard-driven  beast  of  burden. 
How  then  is  it  possible  to  look  with  compla- 
cency on  a  world  in  which  multitudes  of  human 
beings  are  condemned  to  the  work  of  the  ox 
and  the  ass?  For  the  healthy  man,  wealth  and 
happiness  would  seem  to  be  identical,  if  his  de- 
sires are  confined  to  the  things  of  which  money 
is  the  equivalent.  But  this  is  a  delusion,  for 
the  plenary  possession  of  these  things  has  never 
satisfied  a  human  being.  Man  needs  virtue, 
knowledge,  love,  and  to  take  the  obvious  view, 
he  needs  the  power  to  enjoy  the  things  money 
buys;  and  of  this  money  deprives  him. 


TRUTH  AND  LOVE.  \J 

When  we  consider  the  many  unworthy  means 
men  take  to  gain  wealth  and  office,  we  are 
forced  to  believe  that  to  reach  their  ends  they 
are  ready  to  profess  to  hold  opinions  and  be- 
liefs about  which  they  care  nothing  or  which 
they  really  do  not  accept  at  all.  By  this  fol- 
lowing of  time-servers  and  place-hunters  every 
noble  cause  is  weakened  and  the  purest  faith  is 
corrupted. 

To  labor  for  those  we  love,  to  sit  in  the 
hours  of  rest,  with  wife  and  children  about  us, 
smiling  in  the  blaze  of  the  fire  we  have  lighted, 
sheltered  by  the  roof  we  have  built,  secure  in 
the  sense  of  protection  our  presence  inspires, 
is  to  feel  that  life  is  good.  But  is  it  not  a 
higher  thing  to  turn  away,  in  disrespect  of  all 
this  peace  and  comfort,  and  to  strive  alone,  by 
thought  and  deed,  to  find  the  way  which  leads 
to  God  and  to  be  a  pioneer  therein  for  those 
who  wander  helpless  and  astray?  The  more 
we  dwell  with  truth  and  love,  the  more  con- 
scious we  become  that  they  are  the  best,  and 
are  everlasting ;  and  thus  our  immortality  is 
revealed  to  us.  Visibly  we  float  on  the  bound- 
less stream  and  disappear;  but  inasmuch  as 
we  arc  truth-loving  and  love-cherishing,  we 
dwell  in  an  abiding  city,  and  may  behold  our 
bodies  carried  forth  by  the  flood,  as  a  man  sees 
his  house  swept  away,  while  he  himself  remains 

2 


1 8        MEANS  AND  ENDS   OF  EDUCATION. 

Our  thoughtlessness  and  indifference,  our  indo- 
lence and  frivolousness,  blind  us  to  the  infinite 
worth  and  significance  of  life ;  and  they  who 
call  themselves  religious  often  take  it  as  lightly- 
as  worldlings  and  unbelievers. 

In  the  Universe  there  is  nothing  which  exists 
separate  and  apart  from  other  things.  The 
satellites  hold  to  the  planets,  the  planets  to  the 
suns,  the  suns  to  one  another,  all  in  obedience 
to  the  same  laws  which  bind  the  body  to  earth, 
and  cause  the  water  to  flow  and  the  vapor  to 
rise.  For  the  senses  there  is  separateness,  but 
for  the  mind  there  is  union  and  unity.  Com- 
munion, is  the  law  of  souls  as  of  bodies.  Both 
are  immersed  in  a  boundless  world,  from  which 
if  they  could  be  drawn  forth  they  would  cease 
to  be.  The  principle  of  this  infinite  harmony  is 
love,  is  God. 

The  right  human  bond  is  that  which  unites 
soul  with  soul ;  and  only  they  are  truly  akin  who 
consciously  live  in  the  same  world,  who  think, 
believe,  and  love  alike,  who  hope  for  the  same 
things,  aspire  to  the  same  ends. 

Our  mental  view  never  reaches  the  ultimate 
nature  of  being,  and  hence  our  knowledge, 
whether  of  material  or  of  spiritual  things,  is 
incomplete.  Faith  is  the  effort  to  supply  the 
defect  which  inheres  in  all  our  knowing.  Knowl- 
edge springs  from  faith,  faith  from  knowledge,  as 


TRUTH  AND  LOVE.  1 9 

rivers  from  clouds,  clouds  from  rivers.  The 
more  we  know,  the  more  we  believe ;  and  our 
growing  consciousness  does  not  make  us  con- 
tent to  rest  in  a  mechanical  view  of  nature,  but 
it  brings  home  to  us  with  increasing  power  the 
awfulness  of  the  infinite  mystery,  which  we 
more  and  more  clearly  perceive  to  be  a  spiritual 
rather  than  a  material  fact.  If  at  present  there 
is  a  certain  failure  of  will  and  consequent  dis- 
couragement in  the  pursuit  of  moral  and  intel- 
lectual perfection,  this  is  a  result  of  our  passing 
bewilderment  in  the  presence  of  the  revelations 
of  science  and  of  the  mighty  forces  it  places  in 
the  hands  of  man,  and  not  of  any  new  knowl- 
edge which  tends  to  inspire  misgivings  concern- 
ing the  being  of  God  and  our  kinship  with 
Him:  — 

From  nature  up  to  law,  from  law  to  love : 
This  is  the  ascendant  path  in  which  we  move, 
Impelled  by  God  in  ways  that  lighten  still, 
Till  all  things  meet  in  one  eternal  thrill. 

As  the  Universe  revealed  by  the  Copernican 
astronomy  and  the  other  natural  sciences  is 
infinitely  more  sublime  and  .marvellous  than 
such  a  world  as  the  Israelites,  the  Greeks,  or  the 
Romans  imagined,  so  they  who  see  rightly 
in  the  luminous  ether  of  modern  intelligence 
understand  better  than  the  ancients  that  human 
life  is  not  an  ephemeral  and  superficial,  but  an 


20        MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION 

immortal  and  central  power,  enrooted  in  God, 
and  drawing  its  substance  and  sustenance  from 
Him. 

The  appeal  to  shame  is  a  poor  argument. 
The  fact  that  men  of  great  intellectual  power  and 
learning  have  held  an  opinion  to  be  true  does 
not  make  it  so.  New  knowledge  may  have 
shown  it  to  be  false,  or  the  general  advance  of 
the  race  may  have  changed  the  point  of  view. 
The  presumption  of  the  larger  wisdom  of  the 
Ancients  we  cannot  accept :  for  we,  not  they, 
are  the  true  ancients.  The  purest  and  the 
holiest  prayer  men  speak  is  this :  "  Thy  will  be 
done."  They  who  utter  it  from  the  inmost  soul, 
find  peace,  even  as  a  fretful  child  sinks  to  rest 
upon  the  mother's  bosom.  In  learning  to  love 
the  will  of  God  they  come  at  last  not  merely  to 
believe,  but  to  feel  that  His  will  guides  the 
Universe,  and  that  all  will  be  well.  When  an 
utterance  comes  forth  from  the  depths  of  our 
spiritual  being,  men  cannot  but  hearken.  Jt 
is  as  though  we  should  bring  to  exiles  tidings 
of  a  long-lost  home  and  country. 

To  what  a  weight  he  stoops  who  addresses 
himself  with  fixed  resolve  to  the  life  of  thought ! 
The  burden  indeed  is  heavy,  but  the  pathway 
lies  through  pleasant  fields  where  great  souls 
move  to  and  fro  in  freedom  and  at  peace.  And 
as  he  grows  accustomed  to  his  labor,  the  world 


TRUTH  AND   LOVE.  21 

widens,  the  heavens  break  open,  the  dead  live 
again,  and  with  them  he  rises  into  the  high 
regions  where  the  petty  cares  and  passions  of 
mortals  do  not  reach. 

He  who  would  educate  himself  must  make 
use  of  his  own  powers.  He  must  observe,  think, 
examine,  read,  argue,  ponder;  he  must  learn 
when  to  hold  judgment  in  suspense,  and  when 
to  give  the  wings  of  the  soul  free  sweep  through 
the  high  and  serene  realms  of  truth  and  beauty. 
The  farther  we  dwell  from  the  crowd,  with  its 
current  opinion,  the  better  and  truer  shall  we 
and  our  thoughts  become.  They  who  write  for 
multitudinous  readers  rise  with  difficulty  above 
the  dignity  of  mountebanks. 

There  is  a  radical  defect  in  the  character  of 
whoever  works  in  the  spirit  of  a  triflcr,  however 
blameless  his  conduct.  The  power  to  inspire 
faith  in  the  seriousness  and  goodness  of  life  is 
a  sufficient  test  of  the  worth  of  a  scheme  of 
education. 

No  one  should  fill  an  office  which  he  is  unable 
to  hold  without  hindrance  to  the  play  of  mind 
and  heart  that  makes  him  a  man.  The  digni- 
ties we  possess  at  the  cost  of  knowledge  and 
virtue  are  like  jewels  for  the  sake  of  which  one 
goes  hungry  and  naked ;  mere  glittering  bau- 
bles for  which  wc  barter  the  soul's  prosperity. 

Experience  is  personal,  and  it  is  largely  incom- 


22         MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

municable  ;  but  genius  —  and  in  this  lies  its 
power  and  charm  —  renders  it  communicable. 
What  the  poet  or  the  painter  has  felt  and  seen, 
he  makes  all  men  feel  and  see.  The  difference 
between  man  and  man,  between  the  child  and 
the  youth,  the  youth  and  the  adult,  is  chiefly 
a  difference  in  feeling,  in  the  manner  in  which 
they  are  impressed ;  and  it  is  our  nature  to  be 
drawn  in  admiration  or  reverence  to  those  who 
by  their  words  or  deeds  give  us  deeper  impres- 
sions of  the  worth  of  life,  and  thus  open  for  us 
new  sources  of  feeling. 

Fair  thoughts  rise  in  the  heart  and  mind 
of  genius,  like  the  fragrant  breath  which  the 
dewy  flowers  exhale  in  the  face  of  the  rising 
sun,  and  they  utter  themselves  as  simply  as  ma- 
tin songs  warbled  by  sweet-throated  birds. 

Faith  in  the  infinite  nature  and  worth  of  truth, 
goodness,  and  love,  is  the  dawn  which  shall 
merge  into  the  fulness  of  day,  when,  in  other 
worlds,  God  looks  upon  the  soul,  reborn  from 
out  this  seemingness. 

Our  position,  our  reputation,  our  wealth,  our 
comforts,  are  but  a  vesture  like  the  body  itself. 
They  shall  fall  away,  and  we  shall  remain  with 
God.  There  is  no  liberty  but  obedience  to  the 
impulse  of  the  higher  nature  which  urges  us  to 
think  nobly,  to  act  rightly,  and  to  love  constantly. 
The  dominion  of  appetite  is  slavery  ;  the  domin- 
ion of  reason  and  conscience  is  freedom. 


TRUTH  AND  LOVE.  2$ 

Rcnan  somewhere  says  he  could  wish  for 
nothing  better  than  that  a  little  volume  of  se- 
lections from  his  writings  might  commend  it- 
self to  young  women,  whose  fair  faces  should 
bend  over  it,  and  find  there  a  reflection  of  their 
own  pure  souls.  But  where  there  is  no  God, 
the  soul  is  not  mirrored,  and  we  never  really 
love  an  author  who  weakens  faith  and  hope. 

With  whatever  success  we  advance  towards 
the  wide  and  serene  life  of  the  pure  reason,  let 
us  still  cling  to  faith,  hope,  and  love,  the  primal 
powers  which  keep  watch  at  our  birth,  and  which 
bend  over  our  cradles,  and  which  alone  lift  us 
into  the  world  of  enduring  peace  and  hold  us 
within  the  sheltering  arms  of  God.  In  the  en- 
lightened mind,  faith  is  a  higher  virtue  than  it 
can  be  for  the  ignorant,  and  to  sustain  it  there 
is  need  of  a  nobler  life. 

He  whom  neither  learning  nor  power  nor 
wealth  can  corrupt  must  have  virtue;  for 
learning  breeds  conceit,  and  power  begets  pride, 
and  wealth  debases  both  the  mind  and  heart 

The  intellect  does  not  recognize  that  con- 
science may  forbid  its  exercise,  since  knowledge 
cannot  be  evil.  If  earth  were  a  hell  and  life  a 
curse  and  the  Universe  but  a  cinder,  it  would 
still  be  good  to  know  the  fact.  The  saddest  truth 
is  better  than  the  merriest  lie. 

To  know  a  thing  is  to  be   conscious  of  its 


24        MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION 

relation  to  the  mind.  We  know  it,  not  in  itself, 
but  in  and  through  this  relation.  Our  knowl- 
edge of  God,  who  is  the  absolute,  is  not  abso- 
lute knowledge,  but  a  knowledge  of  Him  in  so 
far  as  He  is  related  to  the  mind  of  man.  Since, 
however,  mind  is  reason  and  not  unreason,  there 
is  harmony  between  it  and  things,  between  it 
and  God ;  and  hence  to  be  conscious  of  its 
relation  to  God  and  the  universe  is  to  be  con- 
scious of  a  real  relation,  in  which  both  the 
thinker  and  his  thought  are  in  truth  what 
they  seem  to  be.  The  ultimate  reality  is  in- 
ferred, not  directly  perceived.  It  reveals  it- 
self to  the  purest  faith  and  love,  and  may  be 
hidden  from  one  who  knows  all  the  sciences. 
/  As  man's  relations  to  his  fellows  make  him 
a  social  and  political  being,  so  his  relations  to 
the  unseen  power  behind  and  within  the  visible 
world,  of  whose  presence  he  is  always,  however 
dimly,  conscious,  and  to  whom  he  refers  what- 
ever touches  the  senses,  as  well  as  the  principle 
of  life  itself,  make  him  a  religious  being. 

In  identifying  what  seem  to  be  our  particular 
interests  with  the  interests  of  all,  we  make  escape 
from  narrowness  and  isolation  into  the  general 
life  of  humanity;  and  when  we  come  to  under- 
stand that  not  only  mankind  but  all  nature  is  a 
Unity  in  the  Consciousness  of  the  Infinite  and 
Eternal,  bound  together  by  thought  and   love, 


TRUTH  AND  LOVE.  25 

wc  enter  into  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  Sons  of 
God,  and  feel  that  nor  height  nor  depth  nor 
things  past  nor  things  to  come  shall  separate 
us  from  the  divine  charity.  We  are  akin  to  air 
that  may  become  part  of  our  life ;  and  whatever 
we  know  or  love  or  admire  is  spiritualized  and 
made  human.  To  understand  the  things  of  the 
spirit  we  must  have  spiritual  experience.  The 
intuitions  of  time  and  space,  as  well  as  the  prin- 
ciple of  causality,  are  given  in  the  constitution 
of  the  mind.  So  is  the  idea  of  being,  of  perfec- 
tion, of  beauty,  of  eternity,  of  infinity,  of  duty. 
To  think  implies  being,  to  perceive  things  as 
existing  in  time  and  space  implies  consciousness 
of  eternity  and  infinity.  To  know  the  imperfect 
is  possible  only  in  the  light  of  the  perfect.  Sub- 
ject is  itself  object,  the  first  known  and  best 
understood,  and  the  laws  of  mind  are  laws  of 
being.  If  the  constitution  of  mind  makes  the 
revelation  of  the  material  world  possible  only 
under  the  forms  of  time  and  space,  intelligible 
only  as  sequence  of  cause  and  effect,  the  reason 
is  to  be  found  in  the  nature  of  things.  If  the 
constitution  of  mind  postulates  one  who  knows 
and  shapes,  in  a  world  in  which  whatever  is,  is 
intelligible,  in  which  there  is  order,  proportion, 
and  purpose,  it  is  because  such  an  One  is  given 
in  the  nature  of  things,  and  He  is  God.  How- 
ever living  our  faith,  it  is  faith  and  not  knowl- 


26         MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

edge ;     and    should    it    become    knowledge,    it 
would  cease  to  be  faith. 

f  There  are  three  kinds  of  authors,  —  those  who 
impart  knowledge,  those  who  give  delight,  and 
those  who  strengthen  and  inspire. 
A  noble  thought  rightly  expressed  sweeps 
the  higher  nerve  centres  as  the  touch  of  a  per- 
fect performer  the  strings  of  an  instrument;  but 
if  the  instrument  is  poor  and  irresponsive,  the 
appeal  is  made  in  vain.  Life  has  the  power  to 
propagate  itself,  and  if  the  words  thou  utterest 
are  living,  they  will  strike  root  somewhere  and 
bud  and  blossom  and  bear  fruit;  but  if  there  is 
no  life  in  them,  be  content  to  have  them  fall 
and  lie  amid  the  dust  of  the  dead.  God  and 
the  universe  are  what  they  are,  and  the  best 
even  genius  can  do  is  to  throw  over  them  a 
revealing  light.  He  who  feels  that  he  is  always 
in  the  presence  of  God  will  strive  as  religiously 
to  think  only  what  is  true  as  he  will  strive  to 
do  only  what  is  right-  A  phrase  which  leaps 
forth  aglow  with  life  from  the  heart  and  brain 
of  genius,  not  only  lives  forever,  but  retains 
forever  the  power  to  awaken,  when  brought  into 
contact  with  a  brain  and  heart,  the  thrill  with 
which  it  first  came  into  being. 

Only  a  few  know  and  love  the  poet,  but  they 
are  young  and  fair,  and  the  music  of  high 
thoughts  and  pure  love  is  rhythmic  with  the  cur- 


TRUTH  AND  LOVE.  2J 

rent  of  their  blood ;  and  if  among  them  there 
be  found  some  who  are  old,  they  are  choice 
spirits  who  have  risen  from  out  the  lapses  of 
time  into  regions  where  what  is  true  and  beauti- 
ful is  so  forever.  This  little  band  of  chosen 
ones  accompanies  him  adown  the  centuries,  and 
listens  to  the  melody  which  wells  in  his  heart 
and  breaks  into  songs  that  shall  give  delight  as 
long  as  the  air  of  spring  is  pleasant  and  the 
flowers  fragrant  and  the  carollings  of  birds 
delightful  ;  and  while  the  poet  strolls  on  the 
outskirts  of  time,  thus  loved  and  thus  attended, 
the  stormy  and  glittering  favorites  of  the  crowd 
drop  from  sight  and  are  forgotten,  or  remem- 
bered but  as  the  echo  of  a  name. 

A  line  from  Homer,  which  sounds  like  a  re- 
sponse from  our  own  heart,  is  clothed  with  the 
mystery  of  diviner  power,  because  it  makes  us 
feel  that  we  were  alive  thousands  of  years  ago 
amid  the  Grecian  isles,  thus  revealing  to  us  the 
unreality  of  time  and  space,  and  the  everlasting 
nature  of  truth  and  beauty. 

As  it  is  right  to  admire  and  love  whatever  is 
good  wherever  it  is  found,  it  needs  must  be  the 
part  of  wisdom  to  seek  to  know  and  appreciate 
all  that  is  true  and  high  in  the  works  of  genius, 
though  there,  like  precious  stones  and  metals  in 
the  mine,  it  be  mingled  with  baser  matter.  It 
is  but  narrowness  or  intellectual  pharisaism  to 


28         MEANS  AND  ENDS   OF  EDUCATION. 

turn  from  a  great  author  because  in  his  life  and 
works  there  may  be  things  of  which  we  cannot 
approve.  Shall  we  abandon  God  because  His 
world  is  full  of  evil,  or  Christ  because  there  is 
corruption  in  the  church?  St.  Paul  appeals  to 
pagan  literature,  St.  Augustine  is  the  disciple  of 
Plato,  St.  Thomas  Aquinas  of  Aristotle,  and  the 
culture  and  civilization  of  Christendom  are 
largely  due  to  influences  which  are  not  Chris- 
tian. Whatever  is  good  is  from  God.  There  is 
no  surer  mark  of  the  lack  of  culture  than  the 
use  of  ill-natured  and  abusive  epithets.  To  feel 
the  need  of  injurious  words  to  express  one's 
opinion,  merely  shows  that  one  is  angry,  and 
anger  is  vulgar. 

Whatever  is  inspired  by  vanity  is  in  bad  taste. 
This  is  why  a  showy  style  is  a  false  style,  why 
fine  writing  is  poor  writing.  The  author  yields 
to  the  spirit  of  vainglory,  whereas  he  should  be 
wholly  bent  upon  uttering  his  thought  as  he 
knows  it.  It  is  as  though  he  should  call  our 
attention  to  a  costly  garb  when  what  we  want 
to  see  is  a  man. 

As  a  plain  face  is  better  than  a  mask,  though 
fine,  so  one's  own  style,  though  inferior,  is 
better  than  any  which  is  borrowed. 

True  books  survive  without  help  or  let  of 
critics,  by  virtue  of  their  vital  quality,  which 
attracts  kindred   spirits  with  irresistible  power. 


TRUTH  AND   LOVE.  2 Q 

When  their  worth  becomes  known,  the  critics 
set  up  a  howl  of  praise,  and  many  buy ;  but  only 
a  few  make  them  their  serious  study,  and  learn 
to  know  and  love  them.  Truth  is  the  mind's 
food ;  and,  like  that  of  the  body,  it  is  nourish- 
ment only  when  it  has  been  digested  and  assimi- 
lated. It  is,  after  all,  but  a  little  while  since 
man  began  to  think.  As  yet  he  is  learning  the 
alphabet.  Take  heart  then,  and  apply  thy  mind. 
As  we  grow  older  the  years  seem  to  run  to 
months,  the  months  to  weeks,  the  weeks  to 
days,  the  days  to  hours,  the  hours  to  moments, 
until  time,  like  an  exhalation,  appears  to  dis- 
solve in  the  inane,  and  become  the  nothing  it 
was  and  is  and  will  be  for  eternity. 

If  thought  were  given  us,  like  house  and 
clothing,  merely  for  our  personal  comfort,  wis- 
dom would  lead  us  to  think  with  and  like  all 
the  world.  They  who  are  eager  for  the  good 
opinion  of  others  seem  to  have  but  weak  faith  in 
their  own  worth. 

The  art  of  pleasing  would  better  deserve  our 
study  were  there  more  who  are  worth  pleasing, 
or  were  it  less  difficult  to  please  without  loss  of 
sincerity  and  without  stooping  to  the  service  of 
vulgar  interests.  Not  how  much  or  how  many 
things  thou  knowest  is  of  import.  An  industri- 
ous reader,  of  retentive  memory,  will  easily  know 
more  things  than  a  great  philosopher  compared 
with  whom  he  is  but  a  child. 


30         MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

Know  thyself  was  the  sum  of  what  Socrates 
taught,  and  each  of  the  seven  wise  men  rested 
his  fame  upon  an  apothegm.  To  expect  the 
multitude  to  appreciate  the  best  in  life  or  litera- 
ture, is  to  expect  them  to  be  what  they  have 
never  been  and  will  probably  never  be.  Would 
you  have  an  ox  admire  the  sunrise  or  the  pearly 
dew,  when  all  he  feels  the  need  of  is  grass? 
Appeal  to  the  many  if  you  will,  but  if  your 
appeal  is  for  the  highest,  only  the  few  will 
hearken. 

Consider  not  what  great  men  or  books  are 
worth  in  themselves,  but  what  they  are  worth  to 
thee;  for  thou  art  able  to  judge  of  their  value 
only  in  so  far  as  thou  understandest  and  lovest 
them. 

If  thou  canst  not  bear  trouble,  sorrow,  and  dis- 
appointment without  loss  of  composure,  thou 
art  poorly  equipped  for  life's  struggle.  If  thou 
mayst  not  lead  the  life  thou  wouldst  wish, 
thou  canst  at  least  make  the  life  thou  leadest 
the  means  to  improve  thyself.  If  we  were  so 
constituted  that  thought,  feeling,  and  imagina- 
tion might  have  free  and  healthful  play  in  ever- 
during  darkness  and  isolation,  life  would  still  be 
good.  Could  I  live  surrounded  by  those  I  love, 
I  should  feel  less  keenly  the  discontent  which 
the  consciousness  of  my  higher  needs  creates ; 
and  besides,  it  is  not  easy  to  rest  in  the  comforts 


TRUTH  AND  LOVE.  3 1 

and  luxuries  which  make  and  keep  us  inferior, 
except  in  the  company  of  those  we  love.  If 
our  ordinary  power  of  sight  were  as  great  as 
that  we  gain  with  the  help  of  the  microscope, 
the  world  would  become  for  us  a  place  of  hor- 
rors ;  and  if  we  could  clearly  see  ourselves  as 
we  are,  life  would  be  less  endurable.  God  blurs 
our  vision  as  a  mother  hides  from  her  child  its 
wound. 

Pleasures  which  quickly  end  in  revulsion  of 
feeling  are  but  momentary  escapes  from  pain ; 
and  they  alone  are  fortunate  who  are  able  to 
persevere  in  pursuits  which  give  them  pure 
delight.  "All  good,"  says  Kant,  "  which  is  not 
based  on  the  highest  moral  principle  is  but 
empty  appearance  and  splendid  misery." 

Sensations  of  color,  taste,  sound,  smell,  touch, 
heat  and  cold,  perceptions  of  magnitude,  and 
temporal  and  spatial  relations,  is  the  sum  of 
what  we  know;  and  yet  we  are  conscious  that 
reason  means  infinitely  more  than  this,  that  its 
proper  object  is  the  eternal  world  of  truth,  good- 
ness, and  beauty.  Think  for  thyself  with  a  sin- 
gle view  to  truth;  for  so  only  will  thy  thought 
be  of  worth  and  service  to  others.  We  feel  our- 
selves only  in  action,  and  hence  the  need  of 
doing  lest  we  lose  ourselves  and  be  swallowed 
in  nothingness.  And  for  the  old  and  feeble 
even  worry,  I  suppose,  is  a  comfort,  for  it  helps 


32         MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION 

to  keep  this  self-consciousness  alive.  It  is  im- 
possible to  say  whence  a  thought  comes,  and  it 
is  often  difficult  to  determine  the  occasion  by 
which  it  has  been  suggested. 

Fortunate  are  the  children  all  of  whose  knowl- 
edge comes  from  man  and  nature  in  their  purity, 
whose  memory  holds  no  words  which  are  not 
the  symbols  of  what  they  themselves  have  seen 
and  felt,  in  whose  minds  no  will-o'-the-wisp 
from  chimera  worlds  flits  to  and  fro.  It  is  only 
by  keeping  men  in  ignorance  and  vice  that  it 
is  possible  to  keep  them  from  the  contagion 
of  great  thoughts.  They  who  have  little  are 
thought  to  have  no  right  to  anything.  Thus 
the  plagiarized  sayings  of  Napoleon  and  other 
nurslings  of  fame  pass  for  their  own;  who  their 
real  authors  were,  seeming  to  be  a  matter  of 
indifference. 

If  I  am  not  pleased  with  myself,  but  should 
wish  to  be  other  than  I  am,  why  should  I  think 
highly  of  the  influences  which  have  made  me 
what  I  am?  Should  I  publish  what  I  believe 
to  be  true  and  well  expressed,  and  competent 
judges  should  declare  it  to  be  worthless  in  form 
and  substance,  the  verdict  would  be  interesting 
to  me,  and  I  should  set  to  work  to  discover  why 
and  how  I  had  so  far  failed  in  discernment. 
"A  thoroughly  cultivated  man,"  says  Fonte- 
nelle,  "  is  informed  by  all    the  thinkers  of  the 


TRUTH  AND  LOVE.  33 

past,  as  though  he  had  lived  and  continued  to 
grow  in  knowledge  during  all  the  centuries." 
The  author  is  rewarded  when  his  readers  are 
made  better. 

The  most  persuasive  of  men  are  the  praisers 
of  patent  medicines.  Their  eloquence  is  more 
richly  rewarded  than  that  of  all  the  orators,  who 
also  are  paid,  for  the  most  part,  in  inverse  ratio 
to  the  amount  of  truth  they  utter.  Fame,  as 
fame,  is  the  merest  vanity.  No  wise  man 
wishes  to  be  talked  and  written  about,  living  or 
dead,  to  be  a  theme  chiefly  for  fools. 

Literature  is  writing  in  which  genuine  though', 
and  feeling  are  rightly  expressed.  They  who 
content  themselves  with  what  others  have  uttered, 
learn  nothing.  The  blind  need  a  guide,  but  they 
who  are  able  to  see  should  look  for  themselves. 
There  is,  indeed,  in  the  words  of  genius  a  glow 
which  never  dies;  but  it  only  dazzles  and  mis- 
leads, if  it  fails  to  stimulate  and  strengthen  our 
own  powers  of  vision.  True  speech  is  not  idle  ; 
it  is  utterance  of  life,  the  mate  of  action,  and  the 
begetter  of  noble  deeds.  Strive  for  knowledge 
and  strength,  but  do  not  appear  to  have 
them. 

"  A  book,"  says  La  Bruyere,  "  which  exalts 
the  mind  and  inspires  high  and  manly  thoughts, 
is  good,  and  the  work  of  a  master."  A  phrase 
suffices  to  tell  the  man  is  ignorant  or  the  book 


34        MEANS  AND   ENDS    OF  EDUCATION. 

worthless.  As  the  body  is  nourished  by  dead 
things,  vegetable  and  animal,  so  the  mind  feeds 
on  the  thoughts  of  those  who  have  ceased  to 
live,  which,  it  would  seem,  are  never  rightly 
understood  until  the  thinkers  have  passed 
away. 

To  be  unwilling  to  be  proved  wrong  is  to  fail 
in  love  of  truth ;  to  resent  an  objection  is  to 
lack  culture.  One  may  believe  what  cannot  be 
demonstrated,  but  to  grow  angry  because  there 
is  no  proof  is  absurd. 

To  do  deeds  and  to  utter  thoughts  which  long 
after  we  have  departed  shall  remain  to  cheer, 
to  illumine,  to  strengthen  and  console,  is  to  be 
like  God;  and  the  desire  of  noble  minds  is  not 
of  praise,  but  of  abiding  power  for  good. 

He  who  is  certain  of  himself  needs  not  the 
good  opinion  of  men,  not  of  those  even  who  are 
competent  to  judge.  Only  the  vain  and  foolish 
or  the  designing  and  dishonest  will  wish  to 
receive  credit  for  more  ability  and  virtue  than 
they  have.  An  exaggerated  reputation  may 
nourish  conceit  or  win  favor;  but  the  wise  and 
the  good  put  away  conceit,  and  desire  not  favors 
which  are  granted  from  mistaken  notions. 

"  I  hate  false  words,"  says  Landor,  "  and 
seek  with  care,  difficult}',  and  moroscness  those 
that  fit  the  thing." 

Dwell  not  with  complacency  upon  aught  thou 


TRUTH  AND  LOVE.  35 

hast  or  hast  achieved,  but  address  thyself  each 
day,  like  a  simple-hearted  child,  to  the  task  God 
sets  thee ;  and  remember  when  the  last  hour 
comes  thou  canst  carry  nothing  to  Him  but  faith 
in  His  mercy  and  goodness. 


36         MEANS  AND   ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 


CHAPTER  II. 

TRUTH  AND   LOVE. 

Truth,  which  only  doth  judge  itself,  teacheth  that  the  in- 
quiry of  truth,  which  is  the  love-making  or  wooing  of  it;  the 
knowledge  of  truth,  which  is  the  presence  of  it;  and  the  belief 
of  truth,  which  is  the  enjoying  of  it,  is  the  sovereign  good  of 
human  nature.  —  Bacon. 

AS  those  who  have  little  think  their  little 
much,  so  those  who  have  few  ideas  be- 
lieve with  obstinacy  that  they  are  the  sum  of  all 
truth.  If  the  world  could  but  be  made  to  see 
what  they  see  there  would  be  no  ills.  They  have 
not  even  a  suspicion  of  the  unutterable  complexity 
of  the  warp  and  woof  of  nature  and  of  life  ;  and 
when  their  opinions  are  combated  they  ima- 
gine they  thereby  acquire  new  importance,  and 
they  defend  them  with  such  zeal  that  they  make 
proselytes  and  found  sects  in  religion,  politics, 
and  literature.  The  source  of  the  greater  part 
of  error  is  the  absoluteness  the  mind  attributes 
to  its  knowledge  and,  as  part  of  this,  the  per- 
suasion that  at  each  stage  of  our  mental  life,  we 
are  capable  of  seeing  things  as  they  arc.     The 


TRUTH  AND  LOVE.  37 

aim  of  the  philosopher,  as  of  the  Christian,  is  to 
escape  from  the  ephemeral  self  by  renouncing 
what  is  petty,  partial,  apparent,  and  transitory, 
that  the  true  self  may  unfold  in  the  world  of  the 
permanent,  of  things  which  have  an  aptitude  for 
perpetuity;  but  the  philosopher's  efforts  are 
intellectual  and  moral,  while  the  Christian's 
source  of  strength  is  the  love  which  is  enrooted 
in  divine  faith. 

"  The  brief  precept,"  says  St.  Augustine,  "  is 
given  there  once  for  all,  —  Love,  and  do  what 
thou  wilt.  If  thou  art  silent,  be  silent  for  love; 
if  thou  speakest,  speak  for  love ;  if  thou  cor- 
rectest,  correct  for  love ;  if  thou  sparest,  spare 
for  love.  The  root  of  love  is  within,  and  from 
it  only  good  can  come."  Life  springs  from 
love,  and  love  is  its  being,  aim,  and  end.  Each 
soul  is  born  of  souls  yearning  that  he  be  born, 
and  he  lives  only  so  far  as  he  leaves  himself 
and  becomes  through  love  part  of  the  life  of 
God  and  the  race  of  man. 

Primordial  matter,  with  which  the  physicists 
start,  is  twin  brother  of  nothing.  In  every  con- 
ceivable hypothesis,  we  assume  either  that  noth- 
ing is  the  cause  of  something,  or  that  from  the 
beginning  there  was  something  or  some  one 
who  is  all  the  universe  may  become.  If  truth 
and  love  and  goodness  are  of  the  essence  of  the 
highest  life  evolved   in  nature,  they  are  of  the 


X 


38         MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

essence  of  that  by  which  nature  exists  and 
energizes.  If  reason  is  valid  at  all,  it  avails  as 
an  immovable  foundation  for  faith  in  God  and  in 
man's  kinship  with  him.  The  larger  the  world 
we  live  in,  the  greater  the  opportunities  for  self- 
education.  He  who  knows  friends  and  foes, 
who  is  commended  and  found  fault  with,  who 
tastes  the  delights  of  home  and  breathes  the  air 
of  strange  lands,  who  is  followed  and  opposed, 
who  triumphs  and  suffers  defeat,  who  con- 
tends with  many  and  is  left  alone,  who  dwells 
with  his  own  thoughts  and  in  the  company  of 
the  great  minds  of  all  time,  —  necessarily  gains 
wisdom  and  power,  and  learns  to  feel  himself 
a  man. 

Science  springs  from  man's  yearning  for  truth  ; 
art,  from  his  yearning  for  beauty;  religion,  from 
his  yearning  for  love :  and  as  truth,  beauty, 
and  love  are  a  harmony,  so  are  science,  art,  and 
religion ;  and  if  conflicts  arise,  they  are  the 
results  of  ignorance  and  passion.  The  charm 
of  faith,  hope,  and  love,  of  knowledge,  beauty, 
and  religion,  lies  in  their  power  to  open  life's 
prison,  thus  permitting  the  soul  to  escape  to 
commune  with  the  Infinite  and  Eternal,  with 
the  boundless  mysterious  world  of  being  which 
forever  draws  us  on  and  forever  eludes  our 
grasp.  The  higher  the  man,  the  more  urgent 
this  need  of  self-escape. 


TRUTH  AND  LOVE.  39 

We  look  upon  lifelong  imprisonment  of  the 
body  as  among  the  greatest  of  evils,  but  that 
the  mind  should  be  suffered  to  languish  in  the 
dungeon  of  ignorance,  error,  and  prejudice, 
seems  comparatively  a  slight  thing.  Thy  whole 
business,  as  a  rational  being,  is  to  know  and 
follow  truth,  —  with  gratitude  and  joy  if  possi- 
ble, but,  in  any  case,  with  courage  and  resigna- 
tion. Mind  maketh  man;  and  the  most  money 
and  place  can  do,  is  to  make  millionnaires  and 
titularies. 

The  Alpine  guides,  who  lead  travellers  through 
the  sublimest  scenery  in  the  world,  are  as  insen- 
sible to  its  grandeur  as  the  stocks  they  grasp ; 
and  we  nearly  all  are  as  indifferent  as  these 
drudges  to  Nature's  divine  spectacle,  with  its 
starlit  heavens,  its  risings  and  settings  of  sun 
and  moon,  its  storms  and  calms,  its  changes  of 
season,  its  clouds  and  snows  and  breath  of  many- 
tinted  flowers,  its  children's  faces,  and  plumage 
and  songs  of  birds. 

As  we  judge  of  many  things  by  samples,  a 
glance  may  suffice  to  show  the  worthlessness  of 
a  book,  but  the  value  of  one  that  is  genuine  is 
not  quickly  perceived,  for  it  reveals  itself  the 
more  the  oftcncr  it  is  read  and  pondered.  There 
is  not  a  more  certain,  a  purer,  or  a  more  delight- 
ful source  of  contentment  and  independence 
than    a   taste   for   the    best   literature.      In   the 


40         MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

midst  of  occupations  and  cares  of  whatever  kind 
it  enables  us  to  look  forward  to  the  hour  when 
the  noblest  minds  and  most  generous  hearts 
shall  welcome  us  to  their  company  to  be  enter- 
tained with  great  thoughts  rightly  uttered  and 
with  information  concerning  whatever  is  of  in- 
terest to  man. 

In  every  home  the  bei,.  works  of  the  great 
poets,  historians,  philosophers,  orators,  and  story- 
writers  should  lie  within  reach  of  the  young,  who 
should  be  permitted,  not  urged,  to  read  them. 
We  may  know  a  man  by  the  company  he  keeps ; 
we  may  know  him  better  still  by  the  books  he 
loves:  and  if  he  loves  none,  he  is  not  worth 
knowing. 

Matthew  Arnold  praises  culture  for  "  its  inex- 
haustible indulgence,  its  consideration  of  circum- 
stances, its  severe  judgment  of  actions  joined  to 
its  merciful  judgment  of  persons." 

When  we  have  learned  to  love  work,  to  love 
honest  work,  work  well  done,  excellently  well 
done,  we  have  within  ourselves  the  most  fruitful 
principle  of  education. 

Who  shall  speak  ill  of  bodily  health  and  vigor? 
Herbert  Spencer  affirms  that  it  is  man's  first 
duty  to  be  a  good  animal.  But  since  we  can- 
not all  be  athletes  or  be  well  even,  let  us  not 
refuse  to  find  consolation  in  the  fact  that  much 
of  what  is    greatest,    whether    in    the    world    of 


TRUTH  AND   LOVE.  41 

thought  or  action,  has  been  wrought  by  mighty 
souls  in  feeble  and  suffering  bodies;  and  since 
men  gladly  risk  health  and  life  to  acquire  gold, 
shall  we  not  be  willing,  if  need  be,  to  be 
"  sicklied  o'er  with  the  pale  cast  of  thought," 
if  so  we  may  attain  to  truth  and  love? 

Great  things  are  accomplished  only  by  con- 
centration. What  we  ourselves  think,  love,  and 
do,  until  it  becomes  a  habit,  is  the  form  and 
substance  of  our  life. 

To  live  in  the  company  of  those  who  have  or 
seek  culture  is  to  breathe  the  vital  air  of  mental 
health  and  vigor. 

The  scientific  investigator  gives  his  whole 
attention  to  the  facts  before  him ;  but  the  dis- 
cipline of  close  observation,  however  favorable 
it  may  be  to  accuracy,  weakens  capacity  for  wide 
and  profound  views.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
speculative  thinker  is  apt  to  grow  heedless  or 
oblivious  of  facts.  Hence  a  minute  observer  is 
seldom  a  great  philosopher,  a  great  philosopher 
rarely  a  careful  observer. 

"  Employment,"  says  Ruskin,  "  is  the  half,  and 
the  primal  half  of  education,  for  it  forms  the 
habits  of  body  and  mind,  and  these  are  the 
constitution  of  man."  Tell  me  at  and  in  what 
thou  workest,  and  I  will  tell  thee  what  thou  art. 
The  secret  of  education  lies  in  the  words  of 
Christ,  —  He  that  hath  eyes  to  see,  let  him  see; 


42         MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

he  that  hath  cars  to  hear,  let  him  hear.  The 
soul  must  flow  through  the  channels  of  the 
senses  until  it  meets  the  universe  and  clothes  it 
with  the  beauty  and  meaning  which  reveal 
God. 

When  I  think  of  all  the  truth  which  still  re- 
mains for  me  to  learn,  of  all  the  good  I  yet  may 
do,  of  all  the  friends  I  still  may  serve,  of  all  the 
beauty  I  may  see,  life  seems  as  fresh  and  fair,  as 
full  of  promise,  as  is  to  loving  souls  the  dawn  of 
their  bridal  day.  Animals,  children,  savages, 
the  thoughtless  and  frivolous,  live  in  the  present 
alone  ;  they  consequently  lead  a  narrow,  ephem- 
eral, and  superficial  existence.  They  strike  no 
deep  roots  into  the  past,  they  forebode  no  divine 
future,  they  enter  not  behind  the  veil  where  the 
soul  finds  ever-during  truth  and  power. 

"  The  world  is  too  much  with  us ;  late  and  soon, 
Getting  and  spending,  we  lay  waste  our  powers." 

Whatever  sets  the  mind  in  motion  may  lead 
us  to  secret  worlds,  though  it  be  a  falling  apple, 
as  with  Newton,  or  the  swing  of  the  pendulum, 
as  with  Galileo,  or  a  boy's  kite,  as  with  Franklin, 
or  throwing  pebbles  into  the  water,  as  with 
Turner.  Watt  sat  musing  by  the  fire,  and 
noticed  the  rise  and  fall  of  the  lid  of  the  boiling 
kettle,  and  the  steam  engine,  like  a  vision  from 
unknown  spheres,  rose  before    his  imagination. 


TRUTH  AND   LOVE.  43 

A  child,  carelessly  playing  with  the  glasses  that 
lay  on  the  table  of  a  spectacle-maker,  gave  the 
clew  to  the  invention  of  the  telescope.  The 
pestle,  flying  from  the  hand  of  Schwarz,  told 
him  he  had  found  the  explosive  which  has  trans- 
formed the  world.  Drifting  plants,  of  a  strange 
species,  whispered  to  Columbus  of  a  continent 
that  lay  across  the  Atlantic.  Patient  observation 
and  work  are  the  mightiest  conquerors. 

Among  the  maxims,  called  triads,  which  hav( 
come  down  to  us  from  the  Celtic  bards,  we  fine 
this:    "The  three   primary  requisites  of  genius, 
—  an  eye  that  can  see  nature ;   a  heart  that  can 
feel    nature;     and    boldness  that    dares    follow 
nature."     He  who  has   no  philosophy  and   m 
religion,   no  theory  of  life   and  the  world,   has 
nothing  which  he  finds  it  greatly  important  to 
say  or  do.     He  lacks  the  impulse  of  genius,  the 
educator's  energy  and  enthusiasm.     Having  no 
ideal,  he  has  no  end  to  which  he  may  point  and 
lead.     To  do  well  it  is  necessary  to  believe   in 
the  worth  of  what  we  do.     The   power  which 
upholds  and  leads  us  on  is  faith,  — faith  in  God, 
in  ourselves,  in  life,  in  education. 

Forever  to  be  blessed  and  cherished  is  the 
love-inspired  mother  or  the  teacher  whose  gen- 
erous heart  and  luminous  mind  first  leads  us  to 
believe  in  the  priceless  worth  of  wisdom  and 
virtue,  thus  kindling  within  the  soul  a  quench- 


44         MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

less  fire  which  warms  and  irradiates  our  whole 
being. 

To  be  God's  workman,  to  strive,  to  endure, 
to  labor,  even  to  the  end,  for  truth  and  right- 
eousness, this  is  life. 

"My  desire,"  says  Dante,  "  and  my  will  rolled 
onward,  like  a  wheel  in  even  motion,  swayed  by 
the  love  which  moves  the  sun  and  all  the  stars." 

If  there  are  any  who  shrink  from  wrong  more 
than  from  disgrace  they  best  deserve  to  be 
called  religious. 

Strive  not  to  be  original  or  profound,  but  to 
think  justly  and  to  express  clearly  what  thou 
seest ;  and  so  it  may  happen  that  thy  view  shall 
pierce  deeper  than  thou  knowest. 

The  words  and  deeds  which  are  most  certain 
to  escape  oblivion  are  those  which  nourish  the 
higher  life  of  the  soul.  Self-love,  the  love  of 
one's  real  self,  of  one's  soul,  is  the  indispensable 
virtue.  It  is  this  we  seek  when  we  strive  to 
know  and  love  truth  and  justice;  it  is  this  we 
seek,  when  we  love  God  and  our  fellow-men.  In 
turning  from  ourselves  to  find  them,  we  still 
seek  ourselves;  in  abandoning  life  we  seek 
richer  and  fuller  life. 

Truth  separate  from  love  is  but  half  truth. 
Think  of  that  which  unites  thee  with  thy  fel- 
lows rather  than  of  what  divides  thee  from  them. 
Religion  is  the  bond  of  love,  and  not  a  subject 


TRUTH  AND   LOVE.  45 

for  a  debating  club.  If  thou  wouldst  refute  thy 
adversaries,  commit  the  task  to  thy  life  more  than 
to  thy  words.  Read  the  history  of  controversy 
and  ask  thyself  whether  there  is  in  it  the  spirit 
of  Christ,  the  meek  and  lowly  One?  Its  cham- 
pions belong  to  the  schools  of  the  sophists 
rather  than  to  the  worshippers  of  God  in  spirit 
and  in  truth.  And  what  has  been  the  issue  of 
all  their  disputes  but  hatreds  and  sects,  persecu- 
tions and  wars?  If  it  is  my  duty  to  be  polite  and 
helpful  to  my  neighbor,  it  is  plainly  also  my 
duty  to  treat  his  opinions  and  beliefs  with 
consideration  and  fairness. 

There  is  a  place  in  South  America  where  the 
whole  population  have  the  goitre,  and  if  a 
stranger  who  is  free  from  the  deformity  chances 
to  pass  among  them,  they  jeer  and  cry,  "  There 
goes  one  who  has  no  goitre."  What  could  be 
more  delightfully  human?  We  think  it  a  holy 
thing  to  put  down  duelling,  the  battle  of  one 
with  one ;  but  we  are  full  of  enthusiasm  over 
battles  of  a  hundred  thousand  with  a  hundred 
thousand.  Thus  the  Southern  slave-owners 
were  sworn  advocates  of  the  rights  of  man 
and  of  popular  liberty. 

The  explanation  of  many  provoking  things  is 
to  be  found  in  Dr.  Johnson's  words,  — "  Igno- 
rance, simple  ignorance ;  "  but  of  many  more 
probably  in  these  other  words,  —  Greed,  simple 
greed. 


46         MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

"  In  science,"  says  Bulwcr,  "  read  by  prefer- 
ence the  newest  books;  in  literature,  the  oldest." 
This  is  wiser  than  Emerson's  saying:  "Never 
read  a  book  which  is  not  a  year  old." 

The  facility  with  which  it  is  now  possible  to 
get  at  whatever  is  known  on  any  subject  has  a 
tendency  to  create  the  opinion  that  reading  up 
in  this  or  that  direction  is  education,  whereas 
such  reading  as  is  generally  done,  is  unfavorable 
to  discipline  of  mind.  Shall  our  Chautauquas 
and  summer  schools  help  to  foster  this  super- 
stition? 

What  passion  can  be  more  innocent  than  the 
passion  for  knowledge?  And  what  passion 
gives  better  promise  of  blessings  to  one's  self 
and  to  one's  fellow-men?  Why  desire  to  have 
force  and  numbers  on  thy  side?  Is  it  not 
enough  that  thou   hast  truth  and  justice? 

The  loss  of  the  good  opinion  of  one's  friends 
is  to  be  regretted,  but  the  loss  of  self-respect  is 
the  only  true  beggary. 

Zeal  for  a  party  or  a  sect  is  more  certain  of 
earthly  reward  than  zeal  for  truth  and  religion. 

As  it  is  unfortunate  for  the  young  to  have 
abundance  of  money,  fine  clothes,  and  social 
success,  so  popularity  is  hurtful  to  the  pros- 
perity of  the  best  gifts.  It  draws  the  mind 
away  from  the  silence  and  strength  of  eternal 
truth    and    love    into    a   world    of  clamor    and 


TRUTH  AND  LOVE.  47 

noise.  Patience  is  the  student's  great  virtue  ;  it 
is  the  mark  of  the  best  quality  of  mind.  It 
takes  an  eternity  to  unfold  a  universe;  man  is 
the  sum  of  the  achievements  of  innumerable  ages, 
and  whatever  endures  is  slow  in  acquiring  the 
virtues  which  make  for  permanence. 

The  will  to  know,  manifesting  itself  in  per- 
sistent impulse,  in  never-satisfied  yearning,  is 
the  power  which  urges  to  mental  effort  and 
enables  us  to  attain  culture. 

"  If  a  thing  is  good,"  says  Landor,  "  it  may 
be  repeated.  The  repetition  shows  no  want  of 
invention ;  it  shows  only  what  is  uppermost  in 
the  mind,  and  by  what  the  writer  is  most  agi- 
tated and  inflamed."  What  hast  thou  learned 
to  admire,  to  long  for,  to  love,  genuinely  to 
hope  for  and  believe?  The  answer  tells  thy 
worth  and  that  of  the  education  thou  hast 
received. 

When  we  have  said  a  thousand  things  in 
praise  of  education,  we  must,  at  last,  come  back 
to  the  fundamental  fact  that  nearly  everything 
depends  on  the  kind  of  people  of  whom  we  are 
descended,  and  on  the  kind  of  family  in  which 
our  young  years  have  passed.  Nearly  every- 
thing, but  not  everything;  and  it  is  this  little 
which  makes  liberty  possible,  which  inspires 
hope  and  courage,  which,  like  the  indefinable 
something    that  gives   the    work    of   genius    its 


48         MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

worth  and  stamp,  makes  us  children  of  God  and 
masters  of  ourselves.  "  Wisdom  is  the  prin- 
cipal thing,"  says  Solomon ;  "  therefore  get 
wisdom,  and  with  all  thy  getting,  get  under- 
standing." 

He  who  makes  himself  the  best  man  is  the 
most  successful  one,  while  he  who  gains  most 
money  or  notoriety  may  fail  utterly  as  man. 

With  the  advance  of  civilization  our  wants 
increase ;  and  yet  it  is  the  business  of  religion 
and  culture  to  raise  us  above  the  things  money 
buys,  and  consequently  to  diminish  our  wants. 
They  who  are  nearest  to  God  have  fewest 
wants ;  and  they  who  know  and  follow  truth 
need   not  place  or  title  or  wealth. 

To  every  one  the  tempter  comes,  with  a 
thousand  pretexts  drawn  both  from  the  intellect 
and  the  emotional  nature,  promising  to  lull  con- 
science to  sleep  that  he  may  lead  the  lower  life 
in  peace;  but  he  who  hearkens  becomes  a  vic- 
tim as  helpless  and  as  wretched  as  the  victims 
of  alcohol  and  opium. 

In  deliberate  persevering  action  for  high 
ends,  all  the  subconscious  forces  within  us,  the 
many  currents,  which,  like  hidden  water-veins, 
go  to  make  our  being,  are  taken  up  and  turned 
in  a  deep-flowing  stream  into  the  ocean  of  our 
life.  In  such  course  of  conduct  the  baser  self 
is  swallowed,  and  we  learn  to  feel  that  we  are 


TRUTH  AND  LOVE.  49 

part  of  the  divine  energy  which  moves  the 
universe  to  finer  issues.  As  life  is  only  By  ^ 
moments  and  in  narrow  space,  a  little  thing  may 
disturb  us  and  a  little  thing  may  take  away  the 
cause  of  our  trouble.  We  are  petty  beings  in  a 
world  of  petty  concerns.  A  little  food,  a  little 
sleep,  a  little  joy  is  enough  to  make  us  happy. 
A  word  can  fill  us  with  dismay,  a  breath  can 
blow  out  the  flickering  flame  of  our  self-con- 
sciousness. I  often  ride  among  graves,  and 
think  how  easy  it  is  for  the  fretful  children  of 
men  to  grow  quiet.  There  they  lie,  having 
become  weary  of  their  toys  and  plays,  on  the 
breast  of  the  great  mother  from  whom  they 
sprang,  about  whose  face  they  frolicked  and 
fought  and  cried  for  a  day,  and  then  fell  back 
into  her  all-receiving  arms,  as  raindrops  fall 
into  the  water  and  mingle  with  it  and  are  lost. 
No  sight  is  so  pathetic  as  that  of  a  vast 
throng  seeking  to  enjoy  themselves.  The  hope- 
lessness of  the  task  is  visible  on  all  their  thou- 
sand faces,  athwart  which,  while  they  talk  or 
listen  or  look,  the  shadow  of  care  flits  as  if 
thrown  from  dark  wings  wheeling  in  circuits 
above  them.  The  sorrow  and  toil  and  worry 
they  have  thought  to  put  away,  still  lie  close  to 
them,  like  a  burden  which,  having  been  set 
down,  waits  to  be  taken  up  again.  God  surely 
sees  with  love   and    pity  His  all-enduring  and 


50         MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

all-hoping  children ;  it  is  His  voice  we  hear  in 
the  words  of  Christ,  "  Misereor  super  turbam." 
I  cannot  but  wish  to  be  myself,  and  therefore 
to  be  happy;  but  when  I  think  of  God  as 
essential  to  my  happiness,  I  feel  it  is  enough 
for  me  to  know  and  love  Him ;  for  to  imagine 
I  might  be  of  service  to  Him  would  be  the 
fondest  conceit.  But  He  makes  it  possible  for 
me  to  help  my  fellows,  and  in  doing  this,  I  ful- 
fil the  will  of  Him  who  is  the  father  of  all. 
The  divine  reveals  itself  in  the  human;  and  that 
religion  alone  is  true  which,  striking  its  roots 
deep  into  humanity,  exerts  all  its  power  to 
make  men  more  godlike  by  making  them  more 
human. 

They  who  in  good  faith  inflicted  the  tortures 
of  the  Inquisition  were  led  not  by  the  light  of 
reason,  or  that  which  springs  from  the  contem- 
plation of  the  life  of  Christ,  but  by  the  notion 
that  the  rack  and  fagot  are  instruments  of  mercy, 
if  employed  to  save  men  from  eternal  torments ; 
and  tyrants,  who  are  always  cruel,  gave  encourage- 
ment and  aid  to  the  victims  of  fanaticism.  Why 
should  the  sorrow  or  the  sin  or  the  loss  of  any 
human  being  give  me  pleasure?  Is  it  not  al- 
ways the  same  story?  In  the  fall  of  one  we  all 
are  degraded,  since,  whoever  fails,  it  is  our  com- 
mon nature  which  suffers  hurt. 

Whether  or  nrt  we  have  come  forth  from  a 


TRUTH  AND  LOVE.  5  I 

merely  animal  condition,  let  us  thank  God  we 
are  human,  and  bend  all  our  energies  to  remove 
the  race  farther  and  farther  from  the  life  over 
which  thought  and  love  and  conscience  have 
no  dominion. 

In  the  presence  of  the  mighty  machine,  whose 
wheels  and  arms  are  everywhere,  whose  power 
is  drawn  from  the  exhaustless  oceans  and  the 
boundless  heavens,  the  importance  of  the  indi- 
vidual dwindles  and  seems  threatened  with 
extinction.  At  such  a  time  it  is  good  to  know 
that  a  right  human  soul  is  greater  than  a  uni- 
verse of  machinery. 

We  feel  that  we  are  higher  than  all  the  suns 
and  planets,  because  we  know  and  love,  and 
they  do  not;  but  when,  in  the  light  of  this 
superiority,  we  turn  to  the  thought  of  our  own 
littleness,  being  scarcely  more  than  nothing, 
such  trouble  rises  in  the  soul  that  we  throw  our- 
selves upon  God  to  escape  doubt  of  the  reality 
of  life.  If  we  believe  that  man  is  what  he  eats, 
his  education  is  simply  a  question  of  alimentation  ; 
but  if  we  hold  that  he  is  what  he  knows,  and 
loves,  and  yearns,  and  strives  for,  his  education 
is  a  problem  of  soul-nutrition. 

The  child  is  made  educable  by  its  faith  in 
the  father  and  mother,  which  is  nothing  else 
than  faith  in  their  truth  and  love ;  and  the  edu- 
cableness  of  the  man    is  in   Drooortion  to  his 


52         MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

faith  in  the  sovereign  and  infinite  nature  of 
truth  and  love,  which  is  faith  in  God. 

It  is  in  youth  that  we  are  most  susceptible  of 
education,  because  it  is  the  privilege  of  youth 
to  be  free  from  tyrannic  cares,  and  to  be  sensi- 
tive to  the  charm  of  noble  and  disinterested 
passions.  If  we  show  the  young  soul  the  way 
to  higher  worlds,  he  will  not  ask  us  to  strew  it 
with  flowers,  or  pave  it  with  gold,  but  he  will  be 
content  to  walk  with  bruised  feet  along  moun- 
tain wastes,  if  at  the  summit  is  illumination  and 
joy  and  peace. 

As  in  religion  many  are  called  but  few  chosen, 
as  in  the  race  for  wealth  and  place  many  start 
but  few  win  the  prize,  so  in  the  pursuit  of  intel- 
lectual and  moral  excellence,  of  the  few  who 
begin,  the  most  soon  weary,  while  of  the  rem- 
nant, many  grow  infirm  in  purpose  or  in  body 
before  the  goal  is  reached. 

Time  and  space,  which  hold  all  tilings,  sepa- 
rate all  things ;  but  religion  and  culture  bind 
them  into  unity  through  faith  in  God  and 
through  knowledge,  thus  forming  a  communion 
of  holy  souls  and  noble  minds,  for  whom  discord 
and  division  disappear  in  the  harmony  of  the 
divine  order  in  which  temporal  and  spatial  con- 
ditions of  separatcness  yield  to  the  eternal 
presence  of  truth  and  love.  New  ideas  seem  at 
first  to  remain  upon  the  surface  of  the  soul,  and 


TRUTH  AND    LOVE.  53 

generations  sometimes  pass  before  they  enter 
into  its  substance  and  become  motives  of  con- 
duct ;  and,  in  the  same  way,  sentiments  may 
influence  conduct,  when  the  notions  from  which 
they  sprang  have  long  been  rejected.  The  old 
truth  must  renew  itself  as  the  race  renews  itself; 
it  must  be  re-interpreted  and  re-applied  to  the 
life  of  each  individual  and  of  each  generation, 
if  its  liberating  and  regenerating  power  is  to 
have  free  scope.  Reason  and  conscience  are 
God's  most  precious  gifts ;  and  what  does  He 
ask  but  that  we  make  use  of  them? 

Right  thinking,  like  right  doing,  is  the  result 
of  innumerable  efforts,  innumerable  failures, 
the  final  outcome  of  which  is  a  habit  of  right 
thought  and  conduct. 

Whoever  believes  in  truth,  freedom,  and  love, 
and  follows  after  them  with  his  whole  heart, 
walks  in  God's  highway,  which  leads  to  peace 
and  blessedness. 

A  thing  may  be  obscure  from  defect  of  light 
or  defect  of  sight;  and  in  the  same  way  an 
author  may  be  found  dull  either  because  he  is 
so,  or  because  his  readers  are  dull.  The 
noblest  book  even  is  but  dead  matter  until  a 
mind  akin  to  its  creator's  awakens  it  to  life 
again. 

The  appeal  to  the  imagination  has  infinitely 
more  charm  than  the  appeal  to  the  senses. 


54         MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION 

"  But  when  evening  falls,"  says  Machiavelli, 
"  I  go  home  and  enter  my  study.  On  the 
threshold  I  lay  aside  my  country  garments, 
soiled  with  mire,  and  array  myself  in  courtly 
garb.  Thus  attired,  I  make  my  entrance  into 
the  ancient  courts  of  the  men  of  old,  where  they 
receive  me  with  love,  and  where  I  feed  upon 
that  food  which  only  is  my  own,  and  for  which 
I  was  born.  For  four  hours'  space  I  feel  no 
annoyance,  forget  all  care ;  poverty  cannot 
frighten  nor  death  appall  me."  A  man  of 
genius  works  for  all,  for  he  compels  all  to  think. 
An  enlightened  mind  and  a  generous  heart 
make  the  world  good  and  fair. 

Where  there  is  perfect  confidence,  conversa- 
tion does  not  drag ;  while  for  those  who  love  it 
is  enough  that  they  be  together:  if  they  are 
silent,  it  is  well ;  if  they  speak,  mere  nothings 
suffice. 

The  world  of  knowledge,  all  that  men  know, 
is,  in  truth,  little  and  simple  enough.  It  seems 
vast  and  intricate  because  we  are  imperfectly 
educated. 

The  soul,  like  the  body,  has  its  atmosphere, 
out  of  which  it  cannot  live. 

When  opinions  take  the  place  of  convictions, 
ideas  that  of  beliefs,  great  characters  become 
rare. 

The  pith  of  virtue   lies  not  in    thinking,  but 


TRUTH  AND  LOVE.  55 

in  doing.  A  real  man  strives  to  assert  himself; 
for  whether  he  seeks  wealth,  or  power,  or  fame, 
or  truth,  or  virtue,  or  the  good  of  his  fellows,  he 
knows  that  he  can  succeed  only  through  self- 
assertion,  through  the  prevalence  of  his  own 
thought  and  life. 

They  who  abdicate  the  rights  God  gives  the 
individual,  seek  in  vain  to  preserve  by  constitu- 
tional enactments  a  semblance  of  liberty. 

If  it  is  human  to  hate  whom  we  have  injured, 
it  is  not  less  so  to  despise  whom  we  have 
deceived ;  and  yet  those  who  are  easily  deceived 
are  the  most  innocent  or  the  most  high-minded 
and  generous.  It  seems  hardly  a  human  and 
must  therefore  be  a  divine  thing,  to  live  and 
deal  with  men  without  in  any  way  giving  them 
trouble  and  annoyance.  Truth  loves  not  con- 
tention, and  when  men  fight  for  it,  it  vanishes  in 
the  noise  and  smoke  of  the  combat. 

The  controversies  of  the  schools,  whether 
of  philosophy,  theology,  literature,  or  natural 
science,  have  been  among  the  saddest  exhibitions 
of  ineptitude.  Is  it  conceivable  that  a  thinker, 
or  a  believer,  or  a  scholar,  or  an  investigator 
should  wrangle  in  the  spirit  of  a  pothouse  politi- 
cian? The  more  certain  we  are  of  ourselves  and 
of  the  truth  of  what  we  hold,  the  easier  it  is  for 
us  to  be  patient  and  tolerant. 

Wicked  is  whoever  finds  pleasure  in  another's 


56         MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

pain.  We  can  know  more  than  we  can  love. 
Hence  communion  with  the  world  is  wider 
through  the  mind  than  through  the  heart, 
though  less  intimate  and  less  satisfying.  It  is, 
however,  longer  active,  for  we  continue  to  be 
delighted  by  new  truth  when  we  have  ceased  to 
care  to  make  new  friends.  Learn  to  bear  the 
faults  of  men  as  thou  sufferest  the  changes  of 
weather,  —  with  equanimity ;  for  impatience  and 
anger  will  no  more  improve  thy  neighbors  than 
they  will  prevent  its  being  hot  or  cold.  What 
men  think  or  say  of  thee  is  unimportant  —  give 
heed  to  what  thou  thyself  thinkest  and  sayst. 
If  thou  art  ignored  or  reviled,  remember  such 
has  been  the  fate  of  the  best,  while  the  world's 
favorites  are  often  men  of  blood  or  lust  or  mere 
time-servers.  He  who  does  genuine  work  is 
conscious  of  the  worth  of  what  he  does,  and  is 
not  troubled  with  misgivings  or  discouraged  by 
lack  of  recognition.  If  God  looked  away  from 
His  universe  it  would  cease  to  be;  and  He  sees 
him.  The  more  we  detach  ourselves  from  crude 
realism,  from  the  naive  views  of  uneducated 
minds,  the  easier  it  becomes  for  us  to  lead  an 
intellectual  and  religious  life,  for  such  detach- 
ment enables  us  to  realize  that  the  material 
world  has  meaning  and  beauty  only  when  it  has 
passed  through  the  alembic  of  the  spirit  and 
become   purified,  fit  object   for  the  contcmpla- 


TRUTH  AND  LOVE.  57 

tion  of  God  and  of  souls.  They  are  true 
students  who  are  drawn  to  seek  knowledge  by- 
mental  curiosity,  by  affinity  with  the  intelligible, 
like  that  which  binds  and  holds  lover  to  lover, 
making  their  love  all-sufficient  and  above  all 
price.  All  that  is  of  value  in  thy  opinions  is  the 
truth  they  contain  —  to  hold  them  dearer  than 
truth  is  to  be  irrational  and  perverse.  Thy  faith 
is  what  thou  believest,  not  what  thou  knowest 
The  crowd  loves  to  hear  those  who  treat  the 
tenets  of  their  opponents  with  scorn,  who  over- 
whelm their  adversaries  with  abuse,  who  make 
a  mockery  of  what  their  foes  hold  sacred  ;  but 
to  vulgarity  of  this  kind  a  cultivated  mind  can- 
not stoop.  To  do  so  is  a  mark  of  ignorance 
and  inferiority;  is  to  confuse  judgment,  to 
cloud  intellect,  and  to  strengthen  prejudice.  If 
there  are  any  who  are  so  absurd  or  so  perverse 
as  to  be  unworthy  of  fair  and  rational  treatment, 
to  refute  them  is  loss  of  time,  to  occupy  one's 
self  with  them  is  to  keep  bad  company.  With  the 
contentious,  who  are  always  dominated  by  nar- 
row and  petty  views  and  motives,  enter  not  into 
dispute,  but  look  beyond  to  the  wide  domain  of 
reason  and  to  the  patience  and  charity  of  Christ. 
When  minds  are  alive  and  active,  opposing 
currents  of  thought  necessarily  arise.  Contra- 
diction is  the  salt  which  keeps  truth  from  cor- 
ruption.    As  we  let   the   light  fall   at  different 


58         MEANS  AND  ENDS  OP  EDUCATION. 

angles  upon  a  precious  stone,  and  change  our 
position  from  point  to  point  to  study  a  work  of 
art,  so  it  is  well  to  give  more  than  one  expres- 
sion to  the  same  truth,  that  the  intellectual  rays 
falling  upon  it  from  several  directions,  and 
breaking  into  new  tints  and  shades,  its  full 
meaning  and  worth  may  finally  be  brought 
clearly  into  view.  If  those  with  whom  thou 
art  thrown  appear  to  thee  to  be  hard  and 
narrow,  call  to  mind  that  they  have  the  same 
troubles  and  sorrows  as  thyself,  essentially 
too  the  same  thoughts  and  yearnings;  and 
as,  in  spite  of  all  thy  faults,  thou  still  lovest 
thyself,  so  love  them  too,  even  though  they  be 
too  warped  and  prejudiced  to  appreciate  thy 
worth. 

The  wise  man  never  utters  words  of  scorn, 
For  he  best  knows  such  words  are  devil-born. 

Our  opponents  are  as  necessary  to  us  as  our 
friends,  and  when  those  who  have  nobly  com- 
bated us  die,  they  seem  to  take  with  them 
part  of  our  mental  vigor;  they  leave  us  with  a 
deeper  sense  of  the  illusiveness  of  life.  Free- 
dom is  found  only  where  honest  criticism  of 
men  and  measures  is  recognized  as  a  common 
right. 

As  one  man's  meat  is  another's  poison,  so  in 
the  world  of  intelligible  things  what  refreshes 


TRUTH  AND   LOVE.  59 

and  invigorates  one,  may  weary  and  depress 
another.  What  delights  the  child  makes  no 
impression  upon  the  man.  Men  and  women, 
the  ignorant  and  the  learned,  philosophers  and 
poets,  mothers  and  maidens,  doers  and  dreamers, 
find  their  entertainment  largely  in  different  worlds. 
Napoleon  despised  the  idealogue ;  the  idealogue 
sees  in  him  but  a  conscienceless  force. 

Outcries  against  wrong  have  little  efficacy. 
They  alone  improve  men  who  inspire  them  with 
new  confidence,  new  courage,  who  help  them 
to  renew  and  purify  the  inner  sources  of  life. 
Harsh  zeal  provokes  excess,  because  it  provokes 
contradiction.  Whoever  stirs  the  soul  to  new 
depths,  whoever  awakens  the  mind  to  new 
thoughts  and  aspirations,  is  a  benefactor.  The 
common  man  sees  the  fruits  of  his  toil;  the 
seed  which  divine  men  sow,  ripens  for  others. 
The  counsels  worldlings  give  to  genius  can  only 
mislead.  Not  only  the  truth  which  Christ 
taught,  but  the  truth  which  nearly  all  sublime 
thinkers  have  taught,  has  seemed  to  the  genera- 
tion to  which  it  was  announced  but  a  beggarly 
lie.  The  powerful  have  sneered  with  Pilate, 
while  the  mob  have  done  the  teachers  to  death. 

Make  truth  thy  garb,  thy  house,  wherein  thou 
movest  and  dwcllest,  and  art  comfortable  and 
at  home. 

If  thou  knowest  what  thou  knowest   and   be- 


OO         MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

Iicvest  what  thou  bclicvest,  thou  canst  not  be 
disturbed  by  contradiction,  but  shalt  feel  that 
thy  opposcrs  are  appointed  by  God  to  confirm 
thee  in  truth. 

As  the  merchant  keeps  journal  and  ledger, 
so  should  he  whose  wealth  is  truth,  take  account 
in  writing  of  the  thoughts  he  gains  from  obser- 
vation, reflection,  reading,  and  intercourse  with 
men.  We  become  perfectly  conscious  of  our 
impressions  only  in  giving  expression  to  them ; 
hence  ability  to  express  what  we  feel  and  know 
is  one  of  the  chief  and  most  important  aims  and 
ends  of  education. 

What  thou  mayst  not  learn  without  employ- 
ing spies,  or  listening  to  the  stories  of  the  ma- 
lignant or  the  gossip  of  the  vulgar,  be  content 
not  to  know. 

Our  miseries  spring  from  idleness  and  sin; 
and  idleness  is  sin  and  the  mother  of  sin.  "  To 
confide  in  one's  self  and  become  something  of 
worth,"  says  Michelangelo,  "  is  the  best  and 
safest  course."  Life-weariness,  when  it  is  not 
the  result  of  long  suffering,  comes  of  lack  of  love, 
for  to  love  any  human  being  in  a  true  and  noble 
way  makes  life  good.  Whatever  mistakes  thou 
mayst  have  made  in  the  choice  of  a  profession 
and  in  other  things,  it  is  still  possible  for  thee 
to  will  and  do  good,  to  know  truth,  and  to  love 
beauty,  and  this  is  the  best  life  can  give.     Think 


TRUTH  AND  LOVE.  6l 

of  living,  and  thou  shalt  find  no  time  to 
repine. 

The  character  of  the  believer  determines  the 
character  of  his  faith,  whatever  the  formulas  by 
which  it  is  expressed.  What  we  are  is  the  chief 
constituent  of  the  world  in  which  we  now  live, 
and  this  must  be  true  also  of  the  world  in  which 
we  believe  and  for  which  we  hope.  For  the 
sensualist  a  spiritual  heaven  has  neither  signifi- 
cance nor  attractiveness.  The  highest  truth 
the  noblest  see  has  no  meaning  for  the  multitude, 
or  but  a  distorted  meaning.  What  is  divinest 
in  the  teaching  of  Christ,  only  one  in  thousands, 
now  after  the  lapse  of  centuries,  rightly  under- 
stands and  appreciates.  It  is  not  so  much  the 
things  we  believe,  know,  and  do,  as  the  things 
on  which  we  lay  the  chief  stress  of  hope  and 
desire,  that  shape  our  course  and  decide  our 
destiny. 

They  alone  receive  the  higher  gifts,  who,  to 
obtain  them,  renounce  the  lower  pleasures  and 
rewards  of  life.  Those  races  are  noblest,  those 
individuals  are  noblest,  who  care  most  for  the 
past  and  the  future,  whose  thoughts  and  hopes 
are  least  confined  to  the  world  of  sense  which 
from  moment  to  moment  ceaselessly  urges  its 
claims  to  attention.  Desire  fanned  by  imagi- 
nation, when  it  turns  to  sensual  things,  makes 
men  brutish;  but  when  its  object  is  intellectual 


62         MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION, 

and  moral,  it  lifts  them  to  worlds  of  pure  and 
enduring  delight. 

When  we  would  form  an  estimate  of  a  man, 
we  consider  not  what  he  knows,  believes,  and 
does,  but  what  kind  of  being  his  knowledge, 
faith,  and  works  have  made  of  him.  He  who 
makes  us  learn  more  than  he  teaches  has  genius. 
Whoever  has  freed  himself  from  envy  and  bit- 
terness may  begin  to  try  to  see  things  as  they 
are. 

Each  one  is  the  outcome  of  millions  of  causes, 
which,  so  far  as  he  can  see,  are  accidental.  How 
ridiculous  then  to  complain  that  if  this  or  that 
only  had  not  happened,  all  would  be  well.  It 
is  ignorance  or  prejudice  to  make  a  man's  con- 
duct an  argument  against  the  worth  of  his  writ- 
ings. Byron  was  a  bad  man,  but  a  great  poet; 
Bacon  was  venal,  but  a  marvellous  thinker. 

Books,  to  be  interesting  to  the  many,  must 
abound  in  narrative,  must  run  on  like  chatter- 
ing girls,  and  make  little  demand  upon  attention. 
The  appeal  to  thought  is  like  a  beggar's  appeal 
for  alms, — heeded  by  one  only  in  hundreds 
who  pass;  for,  to  the  multitude,  mental  effort  is 
as  disagreeable  as  parting  with  their  money. 

A  newspaper  is  old  the  day  after  its  publica- 
tion, and  there  are  many  books  which  issue  from 
the  press  withered  and  senile,  but  the  best,  like 
the  gods,  are  forever  young  and  delightful. 


TRUTH  AND  LOVE.  6$ 

"Whatever  bit  of  a  wise  man's  work,"  says 
Ruskin,  "  is  honestly  and  benevolently  done, 
that  bit  is  his  book  or  his  piece  of  art.  It  is 
mixed  always  with  evil  fragments,  —  ill-done,  re- 
dundant, affected  work  ;  but  if  you  read  rightly, 
you  will  easily  discover  the  true  bits,  and  those 
are  the  book."  Again :  "  No  book  is  worth 
anything  which  is  not  worth  much ;  nor  is  it 
serviceable  until  it  has  been  read  and  re-read, 
and  loved,  and  loved  again ;  and  marked  so 
that  you  may  refer  to  the  passages  you  want 
in  it." 

Unity,  steadfastness,  and  power  of  will  mark 
the  great  workers.  A  dominant  impulse  urges 
them  forward,  and  with  firm  tread  they  move 
on  till  death  bids  them  stay.  As  the  will  suc- 
cumbs to  idleness  and  sin,  it  can  be  developed 
and  maintained  in  health  and  vigor  only  by 
right  action. 

If  thou  makest  thy  intellectual  and  moral 
improvement  thy  chief  business,  thou  shalt  not 
lack  for  employment,  and  with  thy  progress  thy 
joy  and  freedom  shall  increase. 

Progress  is  betterment  of  life.  The  accumu- 
lation of  discoveries,  the  multiplication  of  inven- 
tions, the  improvement  of  the  means  of  comfort, 
the  extension  of  instruction,  and  the  perfecting 
of  methods,  are  valuable  in  the  degree  in  which 
they  contribute  to  this  end.     The  characteristic 


64         MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

of  progress  is  increase  of  spiritual  force.  In 
material  progress  even,  the  intellectual  and 
moral  element  is  the  value-giving  factor.  Pro- 
gress begets  belief  in  progress.  As  we  grow  in 
worth  and  wisdom,  our  faith  in  knowledge 
and  conduct  is  developed  and  confirmed,  and 
with  more  willing  hearts  we  make  ourselves  the 
servants  of  righteousness  and  love ;  for  in  the 
degree  in  which  religion  and  culture  prevail 
within  us,  co-operation  for  life  tends  to  super- 
sede the  struggle  for  life,  which  if  not  the  domi- 
nant law,  is,  at  least,  the  general  course  of  things 
when  left  to  Nature's  sway. 

Catchwords,  such  as  progress,  culture,  enlight- 
enment, and  liberty,  are  for  the  multitude  rarely 
more  than  psittacisms,  mere  parrot  sounds. 
So  long  as  we  genuinely  believe  in  an  ideal 
and  strive  to  incarnate  it,  the  spirit  of  hope  kin- 
dles the  flame  of  enthusiasm  within  the  breast. 
Its  attainment,  however,  if  the  ideal  is  sensual 
or  material,  leads  to  disappointment  and  weari- 
ness. Behold  yonder  worshipper  at  the  shrine 
of  money  and  pleasure,  whose  life  is  but  a  yawn 
between  his  woman  and  his  wine.  But  if  the 
ideal  is  spiritual,  failure  in  the  pursuit  cannot 
dishearten  us,  and  success  but  opens  to  view 
diviner  worlds  towards  which  we  turn  our 
thought  and  love  with  self-renewing  freshness 
of  mind. 


TRUTH  AND  LOVE.  65 

If  thou  seekcst  for  beauty,  it  is  everywhere ; 
if  for  hidcousness,  it  too  is  everywhere. 

To  believe  in  one's  self,  to  have  genuine  faith 
in  the  impressions,  thoughts,  hopes,  loves,  and 
aspirations  which  are  in  one's  own  soul,  and  to 
strive  ceaselessly  to  come  to  clear  knowledge 
of  this  inner  world  which  each  one  bears  within 
himself,  is  the  secret  of  culture.  To  bend  one's 
will  day  by  day  to  the  weaving  this  light  of  the 
mind  and  warmth  of  the  heart  into  the  substance 
of  life,  into  conduct,  is  the  secret  of  character. 
At  whatever  point  of  time  or  space  we  find 
ourselves,  we  can  begin  or  continue  the  task  of 
self-improvement;  for  the  only  essential  thing 
is  the  activity  of  the  soul,  seeking  to  become 
conscious  of  itself,  through  and  in  God  and  His 
universe. 

The  little  bird  upbuilds  its  nest 
Of  little  things  by  ceaseless  quest: 
And  he  who  labors  without  rest 
By  little  steps  will  reach  life's  crest. 

The  true  reader  is  brought  into  contact  with 
a  personality  which  reveals  itself  or  permits  its 
secret  to  be  divined.  In  spirit  and  imagination 
he  lives  the  life  of  the  author.  In  his  book  he 
finds  the  experience  and  wisdom  of  years  com- 
pressed into  a  few  pages  which  he  reads  in  an 
hour.  The  vital  sublimation  of  what  made  a 
man  is  thus  given  him  in  its  essence  to  exalt  or 
5 


66         MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

to  degrade,  to  inspire  or  to  deaden  his  soul.  In 
looking  through  the  eyes  of  another,  he  learns 
to  sec  himself,  to  understand  his  affinities  and 
his  tendencies,  his  strength  and  his  weakness. 
Eat  this  volume  and  go  speak  to  the  children 
of  Israel,  said  the  spirit  to  the  prophet  Ezekiel. 
The  meaning  is — mentally  devour,  digest,  and 
assimilate  the  book  into  the  fibre  and  structure 
of  thy  very  being,  and  then  shalt  thou  be  able 
to  utter  words  of  truth  and  wisdom  to  God's 
chosen  ones.  The  world's  spiritual  wealth,  so 
far  as  it  has  existence  other  than  in  the  minds 
of  individuals,  is  stored  in  literature,  in  books, 
—  the  great  treasure-house  of  the  soul's  life,  of 
what  the  best  and  greatest  have  thought,  known, 
believed,  felt,  suffered,  desired,  toiled,  and  died 
for  ;  and  whoever  fails  to  make  himself  a  home 
in  this  realm  of  truth,  light,  and  freedom,  is  shut 
out  from  what  is  highest  and  most  divine  in 
human  experience,  and  sinks  into  the  grave 
without  having  lived. 

To  those  who  have  uttered  themselves  in 
public  speech,  there  comes  at  times  a  feeling 
akin  to  self-reproach.  They  have  taken  upon 
themselves  the  office  of  teacher,  and  yet  what 
have  they  taught  that  is  worth  knowing  and 
loving?  They  have  lost  the  privacy  in  which  so 
much  of  the  charm  and  freedom  of  life  consists; 
they  have  been  praised  or  blamed  without  dis- 


TRUTH  AND  LOVE.  67 

cernmcnt ;  and  a  great  part  of  what  they  have 
said  and  written  seems  to  themselves  little  more 
than  a  skeleton  from  which  the  living  vesture 
has  fallen.  Ask  them  not  to  encourage  any- 
one to  become  an  author.  The  more  they  have 
deafened  the  world  with  their  voices,  the  more 
will  they,  like  Carlyle,  praise  the  Eternal  Silence. 
They  have  in  fact  been  taught,  by  hard  experi- 
ence, that  the  worth  of  life  lies  not  in  saying  or 
writing  anything  whatever,  but  in  pure  faith,  in 
humble  obedience,  in  brave  and  steadfast  striv- 
ing. The  woman  who  sweeps  a  room,  the 
mother  who  nurses  her  child,  the  laborer  who 
sows  and  reaps,  believing  and  feeling  that  they 
are  working  with  God,  are  leading  nobler  lives 
and  doing  diviner  things  than  the  declaimers 
and  theorizcrs,  and  the  religion  which  upholds 
them  and  lightens  their  burdens  is  better  than 
all  the  philosophies. 


6S        MEANS  AND  ENDS   OF  EDUCATION. 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE   MAKING   OF  ONE'S   SELF. 

The  wise  man  will  esteem  above  everything  and  will  cultivate 
those  sciences  which  further  the  perfection  of  his  soul.  —  Plato. 

IT  has  become  customary  to  call  these  endings 
of  the  scholastic  year  commencements; 
just  as  the  people  of  the  civilized  world  have 
agreed  to  make  themselves  absurd  by  calling 
the  ninth  month  the  seventh,  the  tenth  the 
eighth,  the  eleventh  the  ninth,  and  the  twelfth 
the  tenth.  And,  indeed,  the  discourses  which 
are  delivered  on  these  occasions  would  be  more 
appropriate  and  more  effective  if  made  to 
students  who,  having  returned  from  the  vaca- 
tions with  renewed  physical  vigor,  feel  also  fresh 
urgency  to  exercise  of  mind.  But  now,  so  little 
is  man  in  love  with  truth,  the  approach  of  the 
moment  when  you  are  to  make  escape  and  find 
yourselves  in  what  you  imagine  to  be  a  larger 
and  freer  world,  occupies  all  your  thoughts,  and 
thrills  you  with  an  excitement  which  makes  atten- 
tion difficult;   and,  like  the  noise  of  crowds  and 


THE  MAKING   OF  ONE'S  SELF.  69 

brazen  trumpets,  prevents  the  soul  from  mount- 
ing to  the  serene  world  where  alone  it  is  free 
and  at  home. 

Since,  however,  the  invitation  with  which  I 
have  been  honored  directs  my  address  to  the 
graduates  of  Notre  Dame  in  this  her  year  of 
Golden  Jubilee,  I  may,  without  abuse  of  the 
phrase,  entitle  it  a  commencement  oration ;  for 
the  day  on  which  a  graduate  worthy  of  the  name 
leaves  his  college  is  the  commencement  day  of 
a  new  life  of  study,  more  earnest  and  more 
effectual  than  that  which  is  followed  within 
academic  walls,  because  it  is  the  result  of  his 
sense  of  duty  alone  and  of  his  uncontrolled  self- 
activity.  And,  though  I  am  familiar  with  the 
serious  disadvantages  with  which  a  reader  as 
compared  with  a  speaker  has  to  contend,  I  shall 
read  my  address,  if  for  no  other  reason,  be- 
cause I  shall  thus  be  able  to  measure  my  time; 
and  if  I  am  prolix,  I  shall  be  so  maliciously,  and 
not  become  so  through  the  obliviousness  which 
may  result  from  the  illusive  enthusiasm  that  is 
sometimes  produced  in  the  speaker  by  his  own 
vociferation,  and  which  he  fondly  imagines  he 
communicates  to  his  hearers. 

The  chief  benefit  to  be  derived  from  the 
education  we  receive  in  colleges  and  universities, 
and  from  the  personal  contact  into  which  we  are 
there  thrown  with  enlightened  minds,  is  the  faith 


JO        MEANS  AND  ENDS   OF  EDUCATION. 

it  tends  to  inspire  and  confirm  in  the  worth  of 
knowledge  and  culture,  of  conduct  and  religion  ; 
for  nothing  else  we  there  acquire  will  abide  with 
us  as  an  inner  impulse  to  self-activity,  a  self- 
renewing  urgency  to  the  pursuit  of  excellence. 
If  we  fail,  we  fail  for  lack  of  faith ;  but  belief  is 
communicated  from  person  to  person,  — fides  ex 
aitditu, —  and  to  mediate  it  is  the  educator's 
chief  function.  Through  daily  intercourse  with 
one  who  is  learned  and  wise  and  noble,  the 
young  gain  a  sense  of  the  reality  of  science  and 
culture,  of  religion  and  morality;  which  thus 
cease  to  be  for  them  vague  somethings  of  which 
they  have  heard  and  read,  and  become  actual 
things, — realities,  like  monuments  they  have  in- 
spected, or  countries  through  which  they  have 
travelled.  They  have  been  taken  by  the  hand 
and  led  where,  left  to  themselves,  they  would 
never  have  gone.  The  true  educator  inspires 
not  only  faith,  but  admiration  also,  and  confi- 
dence and  love,  —  all  soul-evolving  powers. 
He  is  a  master  whose  pupils  are  disciples,  —  fol- 
lowers of  him  and  believers  in  the  wisdom  he 
teaches.  He  founds  a  school  which,  if  it  does 
not  influence  the  whole  course  of  thought  and 
history,  like  that  of  Plato  or  Aristotle,  does  at 
least  form  a  body  of  men,  distinguished  by  zeal 
for  truth  and  love  of  intellectual  and  moral 
excellence.     To  be  able  thus,  in  virtue  of  one's 


THE   MAKING   OF  ONE'S  SELF.  J\ 

intelligence  and  character,  to  turn  the  generous 
heart  and  mind  of  youth  to  sympathy  with  what 
is  intelligible,  fair,  and  good  in  thought  and  life, 
is  to  be  like  God,  —  is  to  have  power  in  its 
noblest  and  most  human  form ;  and  its  exer- 
cise is  the  teacher's  chief  and  great  reward.  To 
be  a  permanent  educational  force  is  the  highest 
earthly  distinction.  Is  not  this  the  glory  of  the 
founders  of  religions,  of  the  discoverers  of  new 
worlds? 

In  stooping  to  the  mind  and  heart  of  youth,  to 
kindle  there  the  divine  flame  of  truth  and  love, 
we  ourselves  receive  new  light  and  warmth. 
To  listen  to  the  noise  made  by  the  little  feet 
of  children  when  at  play,  and  to  the  music 
of  their  merry  laughter,  is  pleasant;  but  to 
come  close  to  the  aspiring  soul  of  youth,  and 
to  feel  the  throbbings  of  its  deep  and  ardent 
yearnings  for  richer  and  wider  life,  is  to  have 
our  faith  in  the  good  of  living  revived  and  inten- 
sified. It  is  the  divine  privilege  of  the  young 
to  be  able  to  believe  that  the  world  can  be 
moulded  and  controlled  by  thought  and  spirit- 
ual motives ;  and  in  breathing  this  celestial  air, 
the  choice  natures  among  them  learn  to  become 
sages  and  saints ;  or  if  it  be  their  lot  to  be 
thrown  into  the  fierce  struggles  where  selfish 
and  cruel  passions  contend  for  the  mastery  over 
justice  and  humanity,  they  carry  into  the  com- 


72         MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

bat  the  serene  strength  of  reason  and  con- 
science ;  for  their  habitual  and  real  home  is  in 
the  unseen  world,  where  what  is  true  and  good 
has  the  Omnipotent  for  its  defence.  Of  this 
soul  of  youth  we  may  affirm  without  fear  of 
error  — 

"  The  soul  seeks  God  ;  from  sphere  to  sphere  it  moves, 
Immortal  pilgrim  of  the  Infinite." 

Life  is  the  unfolding  of  a  mysterious  power, 
which  in  man  rises  to  self-consciousness,  and 
through  self-consciousness  to  the  knowledge  of 
a  world  of  truth  and  order  and  love,  where 
action  may  no  longer  be  left  wholly  to  the  sway 
of  matter  or  to  the  impulse  of  instinct,  but  may 
and  should  be  controlled  by  reason  and  con- 
science. To  further  this  process  by  deliberate 
and  intelligent  effort  is  to  educate.  Hence  edu- 
cation is  man's  conscious  co-operation  with  the 
Infinite  Being  in  promoting  the  development  of 
life ;  it  is  the  bringing  of  life  in  its  highest  form 
to  bear  upon  life,  individual  and  social,  that  it 
may  raise  it  to  greater  perfection,  to  ever-increas- 
ing potency.  To  educate,  then,  is  to  work  with 
the  Power  who  makes  progress  a  law  of  living 
things,  becoming  more  and  more  active  and  mani- 
fest as  we  ascend  in  the  scale  of  being.  The 
motive  from  which  education  springs  is  belief  in 
the  goodness  of  life  and  the  consequent  desire 


THE  MAKING   OF  ONE'S  SELF.  73 

for  richer,  freer,  and  higher  life.  It  is  the  point 
of  union  of  all  man's  various  and  manifold 
activity  ;  for  whether  he  seeks  to  nourish  and 
preserve  his  life,  or  to  prolong  and  perpetuate 
it  in  his  descendants,  or  to  enrich  and  widen  it 
in  domestic  and  civil  society,  or  to  grow  more 
conscious  of  it  through  science  and  art,  or  to 
strike  its  roots  into  the  eternal  world  through 
faith  and  love,  or  in  whatever  other  way  he  may 
exert  himself,  the  end  and  aim  of  his  aspiring 
and  striving  is  educational, —  is  the  unfolding 
and  uplifting  of  his  being. 

The  radical  craving  is  for  life,  —  for  the  power 
to  feel,  to  think,  to  love,  to  enjoy.  And  as  it  is 
impossible  to  reach  a  state  in  which  we  are  not 
conscious  that  this  power  may  be  increased,  we 
can  find  happiness  only  in  continuous  progress, 
in  ceaseless  self-development.  This  craving  for 
fulness  of  life  is  essentially  intellectual  and 
moral,  and  its  proper  sphere  of  action  is  the 
world  of  thought  and  conduct.  He  who  has  a 
healthy  appetite  does  not  long  for  greater  power 
to  eat  and  drink.  A  sensible  man  who  has  suffi- 
cient wealth  for  independence  and  comfort  does 
not  wish  for  more  money;  but  he  who  thinks 
and  loves  and  acts  in  obedience  to  conscience 
feels  that  he  is  never  able  to  do  so  well  enough, 
and  hence  an  inner  impulse  urges  him  to  strive 
for  greater  power  of  life,  for  perfection.     He  is 


74         MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

akin  to  all  that  is  intelligible  and  good,  and  is 
drawn  to  bring  himself  into  ever-increasing 
harmony  with  this  high  world.  Hence  attention 
is  for  him  like  a  second  nature,  for  attention 
springs  from  interest ;  and  since  he  feels  an 
affinity  with  all  things,  all  things  interest  him. 
And  what  is  thus  impressed  upon  his  mind  and 
heart  he  is  impelled  to  utter  in  deed  or  speech 
or  gesture  or  song,  or  in  whatever  way  thought 
and  sentiment  may  manifest  themselves.  Atten- 
tion and  expression  are  thus  the  fundamental 
forms  of  self-activity,  the  primary  and  essential 
means  of  education,  of  developing  intellectual 
and  moral  power. 

Interest  is  aroused  and  held  by  need,  which 
creates  desire.  If  we  are  hungry,  whatever  may 
help  us  to  food  interests  us.  Our  first  and  in- 
dispensable interests  relate  to  the  things  we 
need  for  self-preservation  and  the  perpetuation 
of  the  race;  and  to  awaken  desire  and  stimulate 
effort  to  obtain  them,  instinct  is  sufficient,  as  we 
may  see  in  the  case  of  mere  animals.  But  as 
progress  is  made,  higher  and  more  subtle  wants 
are  developed.  We  crave  for  more  than  food 
and  wife  and  children.  The  social  organism 
evolves  itself;  and  as  its  complexity  increases, 
the  relations  of  the  individual  to  the  body  of 
which  he  is  a  member  are  multiplied,  and  be- 
come   more    intricate.     As    we    pass    from   the 


THE  MAKING   OF  ONE'S  SELF.  7$ 

savage  to  the  barbarous,  and  from  the  barbarous 
to  the  civilized  state,  intellect    and    conscience 
are  brought  more  and  more  into  play.     Mental 
power  gains  the  mastery  over  brute  force,  and 
little  by  little  subdues  the  energies  of  inorganic 
nature,  and  makes  them  serve  human  ends.    Iron 
is  forced  to  become  soft  and  malleable,  and  to 
assume  every  shape  ;  the  winds  bear  man  across 
the  seas  ;  the  sweet  and  gentle  water  is  impris- 
oned and  tortured  until  with  its  fierce  breath  it 
does  work  in  comparison  with  which  the  mythi- 
cal exploits  of  gods  and  demi-gods  are  as  the 
play  of  children.     Strength  of  mind  and  char- 
acter  takes    precedence    of  strength    of  body. 
Hercules  and  Samson  are  but  helpless  infants 
in  the  presence  of  the  thinker  who  reads  Nature's 
secret  and   can  compel  her  to  do  his  bidding. 
If  we  bend  our  thoughts  to  this  subject,  we  shall 
gain  insight  into  the   meaning  and   purpose  of 
education,  which  is  nothing  else  than  the  urging 
of  intellect  and  conscience  to  the  conquest  of 
the   world,    and    to    the    clear   perception    and 
practical    acknowledgment   of    the    primal    and 
fundamental  truth  that  man  is  man  in  virtue  of 
his  thought  and  love. 

Instruction,  which  is  but  part  of  education, 
has  for  its  object  the  development  of  the  intellect 
and  the  transmission  of  knowledge.  This, 
whether  we  consider  the  individual  or  society,  is 


j6         MEANS  AND  ENDS   OF  EDUCATION. 

indispensable.  It  is  good  to  know.  Knowledge 
is  not  only  the  source  of  many  of  our  highest 
and  purest  joys,  but  without  it  we  can  attain 
neither  moral  nor  material  good  in  the  nobler 
forms.  Virtue  when  it  is  enlightened  gains  a 
higher  quality.  And  if  we  hold  that  action  and 
not  thought  is  the  end  of  life,  we  cannot  deny 
that  action  is,  in  some  degree  at  least,  controlled 
and  modified  by  thought.  Nevertheless,  instruc- 
tion is  not  the  principal  part  of  education  ;  for 
human  worth  is  more  essentially  and  more  in- 
timately identified  with  character  and  heart  than 
with  knowledge  and  intellect.  What  we  will  is 
more  important  than  what  we  know  ;  and  the 
importance  of  what  we  know  is  derived  largely 
from  its  influence  on  the  will  or  conduct. 

A  nation,  like  an  individual,  receives  rank  from 
character  more  than  from  knowledge ;  since  the 
true  measure  of  human  worth  is  moral  rather 
than  intellectual.  The  teaching  of  the  school \ 
becomes  a  subject  of  passionate  interest,  through 
our  belief  in  its  power  to  educate  sentiment, 
stimulate  will,  and  mould  character.  For  in 
the  school  we  do  more  than  learn  the  lessons 
given  us:  we  live  in  an  intellectual  and  moral 
atmosphere,  acquire  habits  of  thought  and  be- 
havior; and  this,  rather  than  what  we  learn, 
is  the  important  thing.  To  imagine  that  youths 
who  have  passed  through  colleges  and  universi- 


THE  MAKING   OF  ONE'S  SELF.  JJ 

tics,  and  have  acquired  a  certain  knowledge  of 
languages  and  sciences,  but  have  not  formed 
,  strongly  marked  characters,  should  forge  to  the 
front  in  the  world  and  become  leaders  in  the  army 
of  religion  and  civilization,  is  to  cherish  a  de- 
lusion. The  man  comes  first;  and  scholarship 
without  manhood  will  be  found  to  be  ineffectual. 
The  semi-culture  of  the  intellect,  which  is  all 
a  mere  graduate  can  lay  claim  to,  will  but  help 
to  lead  astray  those  who  lack  the  strength  of 
moral  purpose  ;  and  they  whom  experience  has 
made  wise  expect  little  from  young  men  who 
have  bright  minds  and  have  passed  brilliant 
examinations,  but  who  go  out  into  the  world 
without  having  trained  themselves  to  habits  of 
patient  industry  and  tireless  self-activity. 

Man  is  essentially  a  moral  being  ;  and  he 
who  fails  to  become  so,  fails  to  become  truly 
human.  Individuals  and  nations  are  brought 
to  ruin  not  by  lack  of  knowledge,  but  by  lack 
of  conduct.  "  Now  that  the  world  is  filled  with 
learned  men,"  said  Seneca,  "  good  men  are 
wanting."  He  was  Nero's  preceptor,  and  saw 
plainly  how  powerless  intellectual  culture  was 
to  save  Rome  from  the  degeneracy  which  under- 
mined its  civilization  and  finally  brought  on 
its  downfall.  If  in  college  the  youth  does  not 
learn  to  govern  and  control  himself,  —  to  obey 
and   do  right  in  all  things,  not   because  he  has 


7$         MEANS  AA'D  EArDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

not  the  power  to  disobey  and  do  wrong,  but 
because  he  has  not  the  will,  —  nothing  else  he 
may  learn  will  be  of  great  service.  It  seems 
to  me  I  perceive  in  our  young  men  a  lack  of 
moral  purpose,  of  sturdiness,  of  downright  ob- 
stinate earnestness,  in  everything  —  except  per- 
haps in  money-getting  pursuits;  for  even  in 
these  they  are  tempted  to  trust  to  speculation 
and  cunning  devices  rather  than  to  persistent 
work  and  honesty,  which  become  a  man  more 
than  crowns  and  all  the  gifts  of  fortune.  With- 
out truthfulness,  honesty,  honor,  fidelity,  cour- 
age, integrity,  reverence,  purity,  and  self-respect 
no  worthy  or  noble  life  can  be  led.  And  unless 
we  can  get  into  our  colleges  youths  who  can 
be  made  to  drink  into  their  inmost  being  this 
vital  truth,  little  good  can  be  accomplished  there. 
Now,  it  often  happens  that  these  institutions  are, 
in  no  small  measure,  refuges  into  which  the 
badly  organized  families  of  the  wealthy  send 
their  sons  in  the  vain  expectation  that  the  fatal 
faults  of  inheritance  and  domestic  training  will 
be  repaired.  In  college,  as  wherever  there  are 
men,  quality  is  more  precious  than  quantity. 
The  number  of  students  is  great  enough  when 
they  are  of  the  right  kind;  and  the  work  which 
now  lies  at  our  hand  is  to  make  it  possible  that 
those  who  have  talent  and  the  will  to  improve 
themselves  may  enter  our  institutions  of  learning. 


THE  MAKING   OF  ONE'S  SELF.  ?g 

But  those  who  are  shown  to  be  insusceptible  of 
education  should  be  eliminated ;  for  they  profit 
not  themselves,  and  are  a  hindrance  to  the  others. 

Gladly  I  turn  from  them  to  you,  young  gentle- 
men, who  have  persevered  in  the  pursuit  of 
knowledge  and  virtue,  and  to-day  are  declared 
worthy  to  receive  the  highest  honor  Notre  Dame 
can  confer.  The  deepest  and  the  best  thing 
in  us  is  faith  in  reason;  for  when  we  look 
closely,  we  perceive  that  faith  in  God,  in  the 
soul,  in  good,  in  freedom,  in  truth,  is  faith  in 
reason.  Individuals,  nations,  the  whole  race, 
wander  in  a  maze  of  errors.  The  world  of  the 
senses  is  apparent  and  illusive,  that  of  pure 
thought  vague  and  shadowy.  Science  touches 
but  the  form  and  surface;  speculation  is  swal- 
lowed in  abysses  and  disperses  itself;  ignorance 
darkens,  passion  blinds  the  mind  ;  the  truth  of 
one  age  becomes  the  error  of  a  succeeding; 
opinions  change  from  continent  to  continent 
and  from  century  to  century.  The  more  we 
learn,  the  less  we  know ;  and  what  we  most  of 
all  desire  to  know  eludes  our  grasp.  But, 
nevertheless,  our  faith  in  reason  is  unshaken; 
and  holding  to  this  faith,  we  hold  to  God,  to 
good,  to  freedom,  and  to  truth. 

Goodness  is  the  radical  principle ;  the  good, 
the  primal  aim  and  final  end  of  life;  for  the 
good    is   whatever    is    helpful    to    life.      Hence 


SO         MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

what  is  true  is  good,  what  is  useful  is  good, 
what  is  fair  is  good,  what  is  right  is  good ; 
and  the  true,  the  useful,  the  fair,  and  the 
right  are  intertwined  and  circle  about  man 
like  a  noble  sisterhood,  to  waken  him  to 
life,  and  to  urge  him  toward  God,  the  su- 
preme good,  whose  being  is  power,  wisdom, 
love  without  limit.  The  degree  of  goodness  in 
all  things  is  measured  by  their  approach  to  this 
absolute  Being.  Hence  the  greater  our  strength, 
wisdom,  and  love,  the  greater  our  good,  the 
richer  and  more  perfect  our  life.  There  is  no 
soul  which  does  not  bow  with  delight  and  reve- 
rence before  Beauty  and  Power ;  and  when  we 
come  to  true  insight,  we  perceive  that  holiness 
is  Beauty  and  goodness  Power.  Genuine  spiri- 
tual power  is  from  God,  and  compels  the  whole 
mechanic  world  to  acknowledge  its  absolute- 
ness. The  truths  of  religion  and  morality  are 
of  the  essence  of  our  life ;  they  cannot  be 
learned  from  another,  but  must  be  wrought 
into  self-consciousness  by  our  own  thinking  and 
doing, —  by  habitual  meditation,  and  constant 
obedience  to  conscience.  Virtue,  knowledge, 
goodness,  and  greatness  arc  their  own  reward : 
they  are  primarily  and  essentially  ends,  and  only 
incidentally  means.  Hence  those  who  strive  for 
perfection  with  the  view  thereby  to  gain  recogni- 
tion, money,  or  place,  do  not  really  strive  for  per- 


THE  MAKING   OF  ONE'S  SELF.  8 1 

faction  at  all.  They  are  also  unwise;  for  virtue, 
knowledge,  goodness,  and  greatness  are  not  the 
surest  means  to  such  ends,  and  they  can  be  ac- 
quired only  with  infinite  pains.  The  highest 
human  qualities  cease  to  be  the  highest  when 
they  are  made  subordinate  to  the  externalities 
of  office  and  wealth.  The  one  aim  of  a  mind 
smitten  with  the  love  of  excellence  is  to  live 
consciously  and  lovingly  with  whatever  is  true 
or  good  or  fair.  And  such  a  one  cannot  be 
disturbed  whether  by  the  general  indifference 
of  men  or  by  their  praise  or  blame.  The  stand- 
point of  the  soul  is  :  What  thou  art,  not  what 
others  think  thee.  If  thou  art  at  one  with  thy 
true  self,  God  and  the  eternal  laws  bear  thee  up 
and  onward.  The  moral  and  the  religious  life 
interpenetrate  each  other.  To  sunder  them  is 
to  enfeeble  both.  To  weaken  faith  is  to  under- 
mine character;  to  fail  in  conduct  is  to  deprive 
faith  of  inspiration  and  vigor.  Learn  to  live 
thy  religion,  and  thou  shalt  have  little  need  or 
desire  to  argue  and  dispute  about  it.  Truth  is 
mightier  than  its  witnesses,  religion  greater  than 
its  saints  and  martyrs.  Learn  to  think,  and  thou 
shalt  easily  learn  to  live. 

In  the  presence  of  the  highest  manifestations 

of  thought    and    love,    of    truth    and    beauty, 

nothing  perfect   or   divine    is    incredible.     Men 

of  genius,  philosophers,  poets,  and   saints,  who 

6 


82         MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

by  thinking  and  doing  make  this  ethereal  but 
most  real  world  rise  before  us  in  concrete  form 
and  substance,  are  heavenly  messengers  and  il- 
luminators of  the  soul.  Had  none  of  them  lived, 
how  should  we  see  and  understand  that  man 
is  Godlike  and  that  God  is  truth  and  love?  We 
cannot  make  this  high  world  plain  by  telling 
about  it.  It  is  not  a  land  which  may  be  de- 
scribed. It  is  a  state  of  soul  which  they  alone 
comprehend  who  have  been  transformed  by 
patient  meditation  and  faithful  striving.  But 
once  it  is  revealed,  a  thousand  errors  and  ob- 
scurities fall  away  from  us.  If  not  educated, 
strive  at  least  to  be  educable,  —  a  believer  in 
wisdom,  and  sensitive  to  all  high  influence,  and 
eager  to  be  quit  of  thy  ignorance  and  hardness. 
As  the  dead  cannot  produce  the  live,  so  me- 
chanical minds,  however  much  they  may  be  able 
to  drill,  train,  and  instruct,  cannot  educate. 
The  secret  of  the  mother's  specific  educational 
power  lies  in  the  fact  that  she  is  a  spiritual  not 
a  mechanical,  force,  loves  and  is  loved  by  her 
pupils.  The  most  ennobling  and  the  most 
thoroughly  satisfying  sentiment  of  which  we 
are  capable  is  love.  Until  we  love  we  are  stran- 
gers to  ourselves.  We  arc  like  beings  asleep 
or  lost  to  the  knowledge  of  themselves  and  all 
things,  till,  awakening  to  the  appeal  of  the  pure 
light  and  the  balmy  air,  they  look  upon  what 


THE  MAKING   OF  ONE'S  SELF.  83 

is  not  themselves ;  and,  finding  it  fair  and 
beautiful,  learn  in  loving  it  to  feel  and  know 
themselves. 

Increase  of  the  power  to  love  is  increase  of 
life.  But  love  needs  guidance.  We  first  awaken 
in  the  world  of  the  senses,  and  are  attracted  by 
what  we  see  and  touch  and  taste.  The  aim  of 
education  is  to  help  the  soul  to  rise  above  this 
world,  in  which,  if  we  remain,  we  are  little  better 
than  brutes.  Hence  the  teacher  seeks  in  many- 
ways  to  reveal  to  the  young  the  fact  that  the 
perfect,  the  best,  cannot  be  seen  or  touched, 
cannot  be  grasped  even  by  the  mind;  but  that 
it  is,  nevertheless,  that  which  they  should  strive 
to  make  themselves  capable  of  loving  above  all 
things.  And  thus  he  prepares  them  to  under- 
stand what  is  meant  by  the  love  of  truth  and 
righteousness,  by  the  love  of  God.  In  the  train- 
ing of  animals  even,  patience  and  gentleness  are 
more  effective  than  violence.  How,  then,  shall 
we  hope  by  physical  constraint  and  harsh 
methods  to  educate  human  beings,  who  are 
human  precisely  because  they  are  capable  of 
love  and  are  swayed  by  rational  motives? 
There  is  no  soul  so  gross,  so  deeply  buried  in 
matter,  but  it  shall  from  some  point  or  other 
make  a  sally  to  show  it  still  bears  the  impress  of 
God's  image.  At  such  points  the  educator  will 
keep  watch,   studying  how  he  may  make  this 


84         MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

single  ray  of  light  interfuse  itself  with  his 
pupil's  whole  being. 

It  is  not  possible  to  know  there  is  no  God,  no 
soul,  no  free  will,  no  right  or  wrong;  at  the 
worst,  it  is  only  possible  to  doubt  all  this.  The 
universe  is  as  inconceivable  as  God,  and  theories 
of  matter  as  full  of  difficulties  as  theories  of 
spirit.  It  is  a  question  of  belief  or  unbelief; 
ultimately  a  question  of  health  or  disease,  of  life 
or  death.  They  who  have  no  faith  in  God  can 
have  little  faith  in  the  worth  of  life,  which  can 
be  for  them  but  an  efflorescence  of  death,  a  sort 
of  inexplicable  malady  of  atoms  dreaming  they 
are  conscious.  If  the  age  tends  irresistibly  to 
destroy  belief  in  God,  the  end  will  be  the  ruin 
of  belief  in  the  good  of  life.  In  the  mean  while 
the  doubt  which  weakens  the  springs  of  hope 
and  love  is  not  a  symptom  of  health  but  of 
disease,  pregnant  with  suffering  and  misery  for 
all,  but  most  of  all  for  the  young.  He  who  is 
loved  in  a  true  and  noble  way  is  surrounded  by 
an  element  of  spiritual  light  in  which  his  worth 
is  revealed  to  him.  In  perceiving  what  he  is  to 
another,  he  comes  to  understand  what  he  is  or 
may  be  in  himself. 

Our  self-respect  even  is  largely  due  to  the 
love  we  receive  in  childhood  and  youth. 
Enthusiasm  springs  from  faith  in  God  and  in 
the  soul,  which  begets  in  us  a  high  and  heroic 


THE  MAKING   OF  ONE'S  SELF.  85 

belief  in  the  divine  good  of  life.  It  is  thus  an 
educational  force  of  highest  value.  It  calms 
and  exalts  the  soul  like  the  view  of  the  starlit 
heavens  and  the  everlasting  mountains.  It  is, 
in  every  good  and  noble  cause,  a  fountain  head 
of  endurance  and  perseverance.  It  bears  us  on 
with  a  sense  of  joy  and  vigor,  such  as  is  felt 
when,  mounted  on  a  high-mettled  steed,  we  ride 
in  the  pleasant  air  of  a  spring  morning,  amid 
the  beauties  and  grandeurs  of  nature.  In  the 
front  of  battle  and  in  the  presence  of  death  it 
throws  around  the  soul  the  light  of  immortal 
things.  It  gives  us  the  plenitude  of  existence, 
the  full  and  high  enjoyment  of  living.  On  its 
wings  the  poet,  the  lover,  the  orator,  the  hero, 
and  the  saint  are  borne  in  rapture  through 
worlds  whose  celestial  glory  and  delightfulness 
cold  and  unmoved  minds  do  not  suspect.  It  is 
not  a  flame  from  the  dry  wood  and  withered 
grass,  but  a  heat  and  glow  from  the  abysmal 
depths  of  being.  It  makes  us  content  to  follow 
after  truth  and  love  in  dark  and  narrow  ways,  as 
the  miner,  in  central  deeps  where  sunlight  has 
never  fallen,  seeks  his  treasure.  It  keeps  us 
fresh  and  young;  and,  like  the  warmer  sun, 
reclothes  the  world  day  by  day  with  new 
beauty.  It  teaches  patience,  the  love  of  work 
without  haste  and  without  worry.  It  gives 
strength  to  hear  and  speak  truth,  and  to  walk  in 


86         MEANS  AND   ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

the  sacred  way  of  truth,  as  though  we  but  idly 
strolled  with  pleasant  friends  amid  fragrant 
flowers.  It  gives  us  deeper  consciousness  of 
our  own  liberty,  faith  in  human  perfectibility, 
which  lies  at  the  root  of  our  noblest  efforts;  to 
which  the  more  we  yield  ourselves  the  more  we 
feel  that  we  are  free.  It  knows  a  thousand 
words  of  truth  and  might,  which  it  whispers  in 
gentlest  tones  to  rightly  attuned  ears :  Since 
the  universe  is  a  harmony  whose  diapason  is 
God,  why  should  thy  life  strike  a  discordant 
note?  Yield  not  to  discouragement;  thou  art 
alive,  and  God  is  in  His  world.  The  combat 
and  not  the  victory  proclaims  the  hero.  If  thy 
success  had  been  greater,  thou  hadst  been  less. 
The  noisy  participants  in  great  conflicts,  of 
whatever  kind,  exercise  less  influence  upon  the 
outcome  than  choice  spirits,  who,  turning  aside 
from  the  thunder  and  smoke  of  battle,  gain  in 
lonely  striving  and  meditation  view  of  new- 
truth  by  which  the  world  is  transformed. 

We  owe  more  to  Columbus  than  to  Isabella; 
to  Descartes  than  to  Louis  XIV. ;  to  Bacon 
than  to  Elizabeth ;  to  Pestalozzi  than  to  Napo- 
leon;  to  Goethe  than  to  Blucher;  to  Pasteur 
than  to  Bismarck.  If  thou  wouldst  be  persuaded 
and  convinced,  persuade  and  convince  thyself. 
Be  thy  aim  not  increase  of  happiness,  but  of 
knowledge,    wisdom,    power,    and    virtue;     and 


THE  MAKING   OF  ONE'S  SELF.  87 

thou  shalt,  without  thinking  of  it,  find  thyself 
also  happy.  Character  is  formed  by  effort, 
resistance,  and  patience.  If  necessity  is  the 
mother  of  invention,  suffering  is  the  mother  of 
high  moods  and  great  thoughts.  Poets  have 
sung  to  ease  their  sorrow-burdened  or  love- 
tortured  hearts ;  and  the  travail  of  souls  yearn- 
ing with  ineffable  pain  for  truth  has  led  to  the 
nearest  view  of  God.  Wisdom  is  the  child  of 
suffering,  as  beauty  is  the  child  of  love.  If  a 
truth  discourages  thee,  thou  art  not  yet  ripe  for 
it ;  for  thee  it  is  not  yet  wholly  true.  Work  not 
like  an  ox  at  the  plough,  but  like  a  setter  afield; 
not  because  thou  must,  but  because  thou  takest 
delight  in  thy  task.  Only  they  have  come  of 
age  who  have  learned  how  to  educate  them- 
selves. Education,  like  life,  works  from  within 
outward :  the  teacher  loosens  the  soil  and 
removes  the  obstacles  to  light  and  warmth  and 
moisture;  but  growth  comes  of  the  activity  of 
the  soul  itself. 

A  new  century  will  not  make  new  men ;  but 
if,  in  truth,  it  be  a  new  century,  it  will  be  made 
so  by  the  deeper  thought  and  diviner  love  of 
men  and  women.  Let  the  old  tell  what  they 
have  done,  the  young  what  they  are  doing,  and 
fools  what  they  intend  to  do. 

The  power  to  control  attention,  as  a  good 
rider  holds  his  horse  to  the  road  and  to  his  gait, 


88         MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION: 

is  a  result  of  education;  and  when  it  is  acquired 
other  things  become  easy. 

Let  not  poverty  or  misfortune  or  insult  or 
flattery  or  success,  O  seeker  after  truth  and 
beauty !  turn  thee  from  thy  divine  task  and 
purpose.  Pardon  every  one  except  thyself,  and 
put  thy  trust  in  God  and  in  thyself.  "  If  I  buy 
thee,"  asked  one  of  a  Spartan  captive,  "  and 
treat  thee  well,  wilt  thou  be  good?  "  —  "I  will," 
he  replied,  "  if  thou  buy  me  or  not;  or  if,  having 
bought  me,  thou  treat  me  ill." 

If  there  be  anything  of  worth  in  thee,  it  will 
make  thee  strong  and  contented ;  it  is  so  good 
for  thee  to  have  it  that  thou  canst  easily  forget 
it  is  unrecognized  by  others. 

If  all  sufferings,  sorrows,  and  disappointments 
had  been  left  out  of  thy  life,  wouldst  thou  be 
more  or  less  than  thou  art?  Less  worthy, 
doubtless,  and  less  wise.  In  these  evils,  then, 
there  is  something  good.  If  thou  couldst  but 
bear  this  always  in  mind,  thou  shouldst  be 
better  able  to  suffer  pain,  whether  of  body  or 
soul.  There  are  things  thou  hast  greatly  desired 
which,  had  they  been  given  thee,  would  make 
thee  wretched.  The  wiser  thou  growest,  the 
better  shalt  thou  understand  how  little  we  know 
what  is  for  the  best. 

"  Had  I  but  lived !  "  cried  Obcrmann.  And 
a  woman  of  genius   replied:   "Be  consoled,  O 


THE  MAKING   OF  ONE'S  SELF.  89 

Obermann  !  Hadst  thou  lived,  thou  hadst  lived 
in  vain."  So  it  is.  In  the  end  we  neither  regret 
that  pleasures  have  been  denied  us,  nor  feel 
that  those  we  have  enjoyed  were  a  gain  unless 
they  are  associated  with  the  memory  of  high 
faith  and  thought  and  virtuous  action.  He  who 
is  careful  to  fill  his  mind  with  truth  and  his 
heart  with  love  will  not  lack  for  retreats  in 
which  he  may  take  refuge  from  the  stress  and 
storms  of  life.  Noise,  popularity,  and  bun- 
combe:  onions,  smoke,  and  bedbugs. 

Be  thy  own  rival,  comparing  thyself  with  thy- 
self, and  striving  day  by  day  to  be  sel-sur- 
passed.  If  thy  own  little  room  is  well  lighted 
the  whole  world  is  less  dark.  If  thou  art  busy 
seeking  intellectual  and  moral  illumination  and 
strength,  thou  shalt  easily  be  contented.  Higher 
place  would  mean  for  thee  less  liberty,  less  op- 
portunity to  become  thyself.  The  secret  of 
progress  lies  in  knowing  how  to  make  use,  not 
of  what  we  have  chosen,  but  of  what  is  forced 
upon  us.  To  occupy  one's  self  with  trifles 
weans  from  the  habit  of  work  more  effectually 
than  idleness.  Perfect  skill  comes  of  talent, 
study,  and  exercise ;  and  the  study  and  exercise 
must  continue  through  the  whole  course  of  life. 
To  cease  to  learn  is  to  lose  freshness  and  the 
power  to  interest.  We  lack  will  rather  than 
strength ;   are  able  to  do  more  and  better  than 


90         MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

we  are  inclined  to  do ;  and  say  \vc  cati  not  be- 
cause we  have  not  the  courage  to  say  we  will 
not.  The  law  of  unstable  equilibrium  applies 
to  thee,  as  to  whatever  has  life.  Thou  canst  not 
remain  what  thou  art,  but  must  rise  or  fall. 
The  body  is  under  the  sway  of  physical  law,  but 
the  progress  of  the  mind  is  left  in  a  large  mea- 
sure to  the  play  of  free  will.  If  thou  wiliest 
what  thou  oughtest,  thou  canst  do  what  thou 
wiliest ;  for  obligation  cannot  transcend  ability. 
Happy  are  they  who  from  earliest  youth  under- 
stand the  meaning  of  duty,  and  hearken  to  the 
stern  but  all-reasonable  voice  of  this  daughter 
of  God,  the  smile  upon  whose  face  is  the  fairest 
thing  we  know. 

He  who  willingly  accepts  the  law  of  moral 
necessity  is  free;  for  in  thus  accepting  it  he 
transcends  it,  and  is  self-determined ;  while  he 
who  rebels  against  this  law  sinks  to  a  lower 
plane  of  being  than  the  properly  human,  and 
becomes  the  slave  of  appetite  and  passion. 
Duty  means  sacrifice;  it  is  a  turning  from  the 
animal  to  the  spiritual  self;  from  the  allure- 
ments of  the  world  of  manifold  sensation — from 
ease,  idleness,  gain,  and  pleasure  —  to  the  high 
and  lonely  regions,  where  the  command  of  con- 
science speaks  in  the  name  of  God  and  of  the 
nature  of  things.  Forget  thyself  and  do  thy 
best,  as  unconscious   of  vain-glorious  thoughts 


THE  MAKING   OF  ONE'S  SELF.  9 1 

as  though  thou  wert  a  wind  or  a  stream,  an  im- 
personal force  in  the  service  of  God  and  man. 
Obey  conscience,  and  laugh  in  the  face  of  death. 
Convince  thyself  that  the  best  thing  for  thee  is 
to  know  truth  and  to  make  truth  the  law  of  thy 
life.  Let  this  faith  subordinate  all  else,  as  it 
is,  indeed,  faith  in  reason  and  in  God.  Abhor- 
rence of  lies  is  the  test  of  character.  Hold  fast 
by  what  thou  knowest  to  be  true,  not  doubting 
for  a  moment  because  thou  canst  not  reconcile 
it  with  other  truth.  Somewhere,  somehow,  truth 
will  be  matched  with  truth,  as  love  mates  heart 
with  heart. 

A  man's  word  is  himself,  his  reason,  his  con- 
science, his  faith,  his  love,  his  aspiration.  If  it 
is  false  or  vain  or  vile,  he  is  so.  It  is  the  ex- 
pression of  life  as  it  has  come  to  consciousness 
within  him.  It  is  the  revelation  of  quality  of 
being;  it  is  of  the  man  himself,  his  sign  and 
symbol,  the  form  and  mould  and  mirror  of  his 
soul. 

Thou  thinkest  to  serve  God  with  lies, 
Thou  devil-worshipper  and  fool ! 

The  moral  value  of  the  study  of  science  lies 
in  the  love  of  truth  it  inspires  and  inculcates. 
He  who  knows  science  knows  that  liars  are  im- 
beciles. From  the  educator's  point  of  view, 
truthfulness  is  the  essential  thing.  His  aim  and 
end    is   to   teach    truth,  and  the   love   of  truth, 


0,2         MEANS  AND  ENDS   OF  EDUCATION. 

which  leavens  the  whole  mass  and  makes  it 
life-giving.  But  the  liar  has  no  proper  virtue 
of  any  kind. 

The  doubt  of  an  earnest,  thoughtful,  patient, 
and  laborious  mind  is  worthy  of  respect.  In 
such  doubt  there  may  be  found  indeed  more 
faith  than  in  half  the  creeds.  But  the  scepticism 
of  sciolists  lacks  the  depth  and  genuineness  of 
truth.  To  be  frivolous  where  there  is  question 
of  all  that  gives  life  meaning  and  value  is  want 
of  sense.  The  sciolist  is  one  who  has  a  super- 
ficial knowledge  of  various  things,  which  for 
lack  of  deep  views  and  coherent  thought,  for 
lack  of  the  understanding  of  the  principles  of 
knowledge  itself,  he  is  unable  to  bring  into 
organic  unity.  The  things  he  knows  are  con- 
fused and  intermingled,  and  thus  fail  either  to 
enlighten  his  mind  or  to  impel  him  to  healthful 
activity.  He  forms  opinions  lightly  and  pro- 
nounces judgment  rashly.  Knowing  nothing 
thoroughly,  he  has  no  suspicion  of  the  infinite 
complexity  of  the  world  of  life  and  thought. 
The  evil  effects  of  this  semi-culture  are  most 
disagreeable  and  most  harmful  in  those  whose 
being  has  been  developed  only  on  its  temporal 
and  earthly  side.  Their  spiritual  and  moral 
nature  has  no  centre  about  which  it  may  move, 
and  they  wander  on  the  surface  of  things  in 
self-satisfied   conceit,   proclaiming  that  what   is 


THE  MAKING   OF  ONE'S  SELF.  93 

beyond  the  senses  is  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
mind,  as  though  our  innermost  consciousness 
were  not  of  what  is  intangible  and  invisible. 

All  divine  things  are  within  and  about  us, 
here  and  now;  but  we  are  too  gross  to  see  the 
celestial  light,  or  to  catch  the  whisperings  of 
the  heavenly  voices.  God  is  here  ;  but  we,  like 
plants  and  mollusks,  live  in  worlds  of  which  we 
do  not  dream,  upheld  and  nourished  and  borne 
onward  by  a  Power  of  whom  we  are  but  dimly 
conscious,  —  nay,  of  whom,  for  the  most  part, 
we  are  unconscious. 

There  is  a  truth  above  the  reach  of  logic,  an 
impulse  of  the  mind  and  heart  which  urges 
beyond  the  realms  of  sense,  beyond  the  ken 
of  the  dialectician,  to  the  Infinite  and  Eternal, 
before  whom  the  material  universe  is  but  a  force 
at  whose  finest  touch  souls  awaken  to  the  thrill 
of  thought  and  love. 

When  we  are  made  conscious  of  the  fact  that 
the  Divine  Word  is  the  light  of  men,  we  readily 
understand  that  our  every  true  thought,  our 
every  good  deed,  our  every  deeper  view  of 
nature  and  of  life,  comes  from  God,  who  is 
always  urging  us  into  the  glorious  liberty  of 
His  children,  until  we  become  a  heavenly  re- 
public in  which  righteousness,  peace,  and  joy 
shall  reign.  "The  restless  desire  of  every  man 
to    improve   his    position    in   the  world    is   the 


94         MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION 

motive  power  of  all  social  development,  of  all 
progress,"  says  Scherr,  unable  to  perceive  that 
the  mightiest  impulses  to  nobler  and  wider 
life  have  been  given  by  those  who  were  not 
thinking  at  all  of  improving  their  position,  but 
were  wholly  bent  upon  improving  themselves. 
Make  choice,  O  youth !  between  having  and 
being.  If  having  is  thy  aim,  consent  to  be 
inferior;  if  being  is  thy  aim,  be  content  with 
having  little.  Real  students,  cultivators  of  them- 
selves, are  not  inspired  by  the  love  of  fame  or 
wealth  or  position,  but  they  are  driven  by  an 
inner  impulse  to  which  they  cannot  but  yield. 
Their  enthusiasm  is  not  a  fire  that  blazes  for  an 
hour  and  then  dies  out;  it  is  a  heat  from  central 
depths  of  life,  self-fed  and  inextinguishable. 

The  impulse  to  nobler  and  freer  life  springs, 
never  from  masses  of  men,  but  always  from 
single  luminous  minds  and  glowing  hearts.  The 
lightning  of  great  thoughts  shows  the  way  to 
heroic  deeds.  It  is  better  to  know  than  to  be 
known,  to  love  than  to  be  loved,  to  help  than 
to  be  helped  ;  for  since  life  is  action,  it  is  better 
to  act  than  to  be  acted  upon.  Whosoever  makes 
himself  purer,  worthier,  wiser,  works  for  his 
country,  works  for  God.  The  belief  that  the 
might  of  truth  is  so  great  that  it  must  prevail 
in  spite  of  whatever  opposition,  needs,  to  say 
the  least,  interpretation ;   for  it  has  often  hap- 


THE  MAKING  OF  ONE'S  SELF.  95 

pened  that  truth  has  been  overcome  for  whole 
generations  and  races;  and  the  important  con- 
sideration is  not  whether  it  shall  finally  prevail, 
but  whether  it  shall  prevail  for  us,  for  our  own 
age  and  people.  It  is  of  the  nature  of  spiritual 
gifts  to  work  in  every  direction ;  they  enrich 
the  individual  and  the  nation ;  they  develop, 
purify,  and  refine  the  intellectual,  moral,  and 
physical  worlds  in  which  men  live  and  strive. 
The  State  and  the  Church  are  organisms ;  the 
body,  the  social  and  religious  soul,  under  the 
guidance  of  God,  creates  for  itself.  And  not 
only  should  there  be  no  conflict  between  them, 
but  there  should  be  none  between  them  and  the 
free  and  full  development  of  the  individual.  A 
peasant  whose  mental  state  is  what  it  might 
have  been  a  thousand  years  ago  is  for  us,  how- 
ever moral  and  religious,  an  altogether  unsatis- 
factory kind  of  man.  All  knowledge  is  pure, 
and  all  speech  is  so  if  it  spring  from  the  simple 
desire  to  utter  what  is  seen  and  recognized  as 
truth.  The  love  of  liberty  is  rare.  It  is  not 
found  in  those  whose  life-aim  is  money,  pleasure, 
and  place,  which  enslave ;  but  in  those  who 
love  truth,  which  is  the  only  liberating  power. 
Knowledge  is  the  correlative  of  being,  and  only 
a  high  and  loving  soul  can  know  what  truth  is 
or  understand  what  Christ  meant  when  He  said: 
"  Ye  shall  know  truth,  and  truth  shall  make  you 


96         MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION 

free."  High  thinking  and  right  loving  may 
make  enemies  of  those  around  us,  but  they 
make  us  Godlike.  How  seldom  in  our  daily 
experience  of  men  do  we  find  one  who  wishes 
to  be  enlightened,  reformed,  and  made  virtuous  ! 
How  easy  it  is  to  find  those  who  wish  to  be 
pleased  and  flattered ! 

At  no  period  in  history  has  civilization  been 
so  widespread  or  so  complex  as  to-day.  Never 
have  the  organs  of  the  social  body  been  so 
perfect.  Never  has  it  been  possible  for  so  many 
to  co-operate  intelligently  in  the  work  of  pro- 
gress. You,  gentlemen,  have  youth  and  faith 
and  the  elements  of  intellectual  and  moral 
culture.  In  the  freshness  and  vigor  of  early 
manhood,  you  stand  upon  the  threshold  of  the 
new  century.  You  speak  Shakspeare's  and 
Milton's  tongue;  in  your  veins  is  the  blood 
which  in  other  lands  and  centuries  has  nourished 
the  spirit  which  makes  martyrs,  heroes,  and 
saints.  Your  religion  strikes  its  roots  into  the 
historic  past  of  man's  noblest  achievements,  and 
looks  to  the  future  with  the  serene  confidence 
with  which  it  looks  to  God.  Your  country,  if 
not  old,  is  not  without  glory.  Its  soil  is  as 
fertile,  its  climate  as  salubrious  as  its  domain  is 
vast.  It  is  peopled  by  that  Aryan  race,  which, 
from  most  ancient  days,  has  been  the  creator 
and  invincible  defender  of  art  and  science  and 


THE  MAKING   OF  ONE'S  SELF.  97 

philosophy  and  liberty;  and  with  all  this  the 
divine  spirit  and  doctrine  of  the  Son  of  Man 
have  been  interfused. 

We  are  here  in  America  constituted  on 
the  wide  basis  of  universal  freedom,  universal 
opportunity,  universal  intelligence,  universal 
good-will.  Our  government  is  the  rule  of  all 
for  the  welfare  of  all ;  it  has  stood  the  test  of 
civil  war,  and  in  many  ways  proved  itself  both 
beneficent  and  strong.  Already  we  have  sub- 
dued this  continent  to  the  service  of  man. 
Within  a  hundred  years  we  have  grown  to  be 
one  of  the  most  populous  and  wealthy  and  also 
one  of  the  most  civilized  and  progressive  nations 
of  the  earth.  Your  opportunities  are  equal  to 
the  fullest  measure  of  human  worth  and  genius. 
In  the  midst  of  a  high  and  noble  environment 
it  were  doubly  a  disgrace  to  be  low  and  base. 
In  intellectual  and  moral  processes  and  results 
the  important  consideration  is  not  how  much, 
but  what  and  how.  How  much,  for  instance, 
one  has  read  or  written  gives  us  little  insight 
into  his  worth  and  character;  but  when  we  know 
what  and  how  he  has  read  and  written,  we  know 
something  of  his  life.  When  I  am  told  that 
America  has  more  schools,  churches,  and  news- 
papers than  any  other  land,  I  think  of  their 
kind,  and  am  tempted  to  doubt  whether  it  were 
not  better  if  we  had  fewer. 
7 


98         MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

The  more  general  and  the  higher  the  average 
education  of  the  people,  the  more  urgent  is  the 
need  of  thoroughly  cultivated  and  enlightened 
minds  to  lead  them  wisely.  The  standard  of 
our  intellectual  and  professional  education  is 
still  low;  and  neither  from  the  press  nor  the 
pulpit  nor  legislative  halls  do  we  hear  highest 
wisdom  rightly  uttered.  To  be  an  intellectual 
force  in  this  age  one  must  know  —  must  know 
much  and  know  thoroughly ;  for  now  in  many 
places  there  are  a  few,  at  least,  who  are  acquainted 
with  the  whole  history  of  thought  and  discovery, 
who  are  familiar  with  the  best  thinking  of  the 
noblest  minds  that  have  ever  lived ;  and  to  ima- 
gine that  a  sciolist,  a  half-educated  person,  can 
have  anything  new  or  important  to  impart  is  to 
delude  one's  self. 

But  if  you  fail,  you  will  fail  like  all  who  fail, 
—  not  from  lack  of  knowledge,  but  from  lack  of 
conduct;  for  the  burden  which  in  the  end  bears 
us  down  is  that  of  our  moral  delinquencies. 
All  else  we  may  endure,  but  that  is  a  sinking 
and  giving  way  of  the  source  of  life  itself.  It  is 
better,  in  every  way,  that  you  should  be  true 
Christian  men  than  that  you  should  do  deeds 
which  will  make  your  names  famous.  And  if 
you  could  believe  this  with  all  your  heart,  you 
would  find  peace  and  freedom  of  spirit,  even 
though  your  labors  should  seem  vain  and  your 


THE  MAKING   OF  ONE'S  SELF.  99 

lives  of  little  moment.  The  more  reason  and 
conscience  are  brought  to  bear  upon  you,  the 
more  will  you  be  lifted  into  the  high  and  abid- 
ing world,  where  truth  and  love  and  holiness 
are  recognized  to  be  man's  proper  and  imperish- 
able good.  Become  all  it  is  possible  for  you  to 
become.  What  this  is  you  can  know  only  by 
striving  day  by  day,  from  youth  to  age,  even 
unto  the  end ;  leaving  the  issue  with  God  and 
His  master-workman,  Time. 


IOO      MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

WOMAN  AND  EDUCATION. 

Progress,  man's  distinctive  mark  alone  ; 

Not  God's  and  not  the  beasts' ;   God  is,  they  are  ; 

Man  partly  is  and  wholly  hopes  to  be.  —  Browning. 

'"T^HE  partialness  of  man's  life,  the  low  level 
on  which  the  race  has  been  content  to 
dwell,  is  attributable,  in  no  small  measure,  to 
the  injustice  done  to  woman.  It  was  assumed 
she  was  inferior,  and  to  make  the  assumption 
true,  she  was  kept  in  ignorance,  dwarfed  and 
treated  as  a  means  rather  than  as  an  end. 

The  right  to  grow  is  the  primal  right;  it  is 
the  right  to  live,  to  unfold  our  being  on  every 
side  in  the  ceaseless  striving  for  truth  and  love 
and  beauty.  In  comparison  with  this,  purely 
political  and  civil  rights  are  unimportant.  And 
in  a  free  state  this  fundamental  right  must  not 
only  be  acknowledged  and  defended,  but  a 
public  opinion  must  be  created  which  shall 
declare  it  to  be  the  most  sacred  and  inviolable. 
The  principle  is  universal,  and  is  as  applicable 
to  woman  as  to  man. 


WOMAN  AND  EDUCATION.  IOI 

There  is  not  a  religion,  a  philosophy,  a 
science,  an  art  for  man  and  another  for  woman. 
Consequently  there  is  not,  in  its  essential  ele- 
ments at  least,  an  education  for  man  and  an- 
other for  woman.  In  souls,  in  minds,  in 
consciences,  in  hearts,  there  is  no  sex.  What 
is  the  best  education  for  woman  ?  That  which 
will  best  help  her  to  become  a  perfect  human 
being,  wise,  loving,  and  strong.  What  is  her 
work?  Whatever  may  help  her  to  become 
herself.  What  is  forbidden  her?  Nothing  but 
what  degrades  or  narrows  or  warps.  What  has 
she  the  right  to  do  ?  Any  good  and  beautiful 
and  useful  thing  she  is  able  to  do  without  hurt 
to  her  dignity  and  worth  as  a  human  being. 

Between  her  and  man  the  real  question  is 
not  of  more  and  less,  of  inferiority  and  supe- 
riority, but  of  unlikeness.  Chastity  is  woman's 
great  virtue ;  truthfulness,  which  is  the  highest 
form  of  courage,  is  man's ;  yet  men  and  women 
are  equally  bound  to  be  chaste  and  truthful. 
Mildness  and  sweet  reasonableness  are  woman's 
subtlest  charms ;  wisdom  and  valor,  man's ;  yet 
women  should  be  wise  and  brave,  and  men 
should  be  mild  and  reasonable.  The  spiritual 
endowment  of  the  sexes  is  much  the  same,  but 
they  are  not  equally  interested  in  the  same 
things.  Man  prefers  thought ;  woman,  senti- 
ment; he  reaches  his  conclusions  through  analy- 


102       MEANS  AND  ENDS   OF  EDUCATION. 

sis  and  argument;  she,  through  feeling  and 
intuition.  He  has  greater  power  of  self-control ; 
she,  of  self-sacrifice.  He  is  guided  by  law  and 
principle  ;  she,  by  insight  and  tact ;  he  demands 
justice  ;  she,  equity.  He  wishes  to  be  honored 
for  wealth  and  position  ;  she,  for  herself.  For 
him  what  he  possesses  is  a  means;  for  her, 
something  to  which  she  holds  and  is  attached. 
He  asks  for  power ;  she,  for  affection.  He  de- 
rives his  idea  of  duty  from  reason  ;  she,  from 
faith  and  love.  He  prefers  science  and  philoso- 
phy;  she,  literature  and  art.  His  religion  is  a 
code  of  morality ;  hers,  faith  and  hope  and  love 
and  imagination.  For  her,  things  easily  become 
persons  ;  for  him,  persons  are  little  more  than 
things.  She  has  greater  power  of  self-efface- 
ment, forgetting  herself  wholly  in  her  love. 
Whether  she  marry  or  become  a  nun,  she  aban- 
dons her  name,  the  symbol  of  her  identity,  in 
proof  that  she  is  dedicate  to  the  race  and  to 
God.  The  arguments  of  infidels  have  less 
weight  with  her  than  with  man,  for  her  sense  of 
religion  is  more  genuine,  her  faith  more  inevi- 
table. She  passes  over  objections  as  a  chaste 
mind  passes  over  what  is  coarse  or  impure.  She 
more  easily  finds  complacency  in  her  appear- 
ance and  surroundings,  but  she  has  less  pride 
and  conceit  than  man.  She  is  more  grateful, 
too,    because   she   loves   more,    and    the    heart 


WOMAN  AND  EDUCATION.  103 

makes  memory  true.  If  her  greater  fondness  for 
jewelry  and  showy  adornment  proves  her  to  be 
more  barbarous,  her  greater  refinement  and  chas- 
tity prove  her  to  be  more  civilized  than  man. 
And  does  not  her  delight  in  dress  come  of  her 
care  for  beauty,  which  in  a  world  of  coarse  and 
ugly  creatures  is  a  virtue  as  fair  as  the  face  of 
spring?  Why  should  the  flowers  and  the  fields, 
the  hills  and  the  heavens,  be  beautiful,  and  man 
hideous,  and  the  cities  where  he  abides  dismal? 
Are  we  but  cattle  to  be  stalled  and  fed?  Are 
corn  and  beef  and  iron  the  only  good  and  useful 
things?  Are  we  not  human  because  we  think 
and  admire,  and  are  exalted  in  the  presence  of 
what  is  infinitely  true  and  divinely  fair? 

Faith,  hope,  and  love  are  larger  and  more 
enduring  powers  for  woman  than  for  man. 
She  feeds  the  sacred  fire  which  never  dies  on 
the  altars  of  home  and  religion  and  country. 
She  lives  a  more  interior  life,  and  more  easily 
retains  consciousness  of  the  soul's  reality  and 
of  God's  presence.  If  she  speaks  less  of  patri- 
otism in  peaceful  times,  in  the  hour  of  danger 
the  white  light  flashes  from  her  soul.  It  is  this 
that  makes  brave  men  think  of  their  mothers 
and  wives  and  sisters  when  they  march  to  battle. 
They  know  that  those  sweet  hearts,  however 
keen  the  pangs  they  suffer,  would  rather  have 
them   dead    than    craven.     When    woman   shall 


104      ME  A  AS  AND  ENDS  OE  EDUCATION. 

grow  to  the  full  measure  of  her  endowments, 
a  purer  flame  will  glow  upon  the  hearth, 
and  love  of  country  will  be  a  more  genuine 
passion. 

If  she  gain  a  wider  and  more  varied  interest 
in  life,  she  will  become  happier,  more  willing 
and  more  able  to  help  the  progress  of  the 
race.  Like  man,  she  exists  for  herself  and 
God,  and  in  her  relations  to  others,  her  duties 
are  not  to  the  home  alone,  but  to  the  whole  social 
body,  religious  and  civil.  Whether  man  or 
woman,  is  a  minor  thing;  to  be  wise  and  worthy 
and  loving  is  all  in  all.  Our  deeper  conscious- 
ness and  practical  recognition  of  the  equality  of 
the  sexes  is  better  evidence  that  we  are  becom- 
ing Christian  and  civilized  than  popular  govern- 
ment and  all  our  mechanical  devices.  We,  how- 
ever, still  have  prejudices  as  ridiculous  and 
harmful  as  that  which  made  it  unbecoming  in  a 
woman  to  know  anything  or  in  a  man  of  birth 
to  engage  in  business.  If  we  hold  that  every 
human  being  has  the  right  to  do  whatever  is 
fair  or  noble  or  useful,  we  must  also  hold  that  it 
is  wrong  to  throw  hindrance  in  the  way  of  the 
complete  education  of  any  human  being.  We 
at  last,  however  slowly,  are  approaching  the 
standpoint  of  Christ,  who,  with  his  divine 
eye  upon  the  sexless  soul,  overlooks  distinc- 
tions of  sex,  and  placing  the  good   of  life   in 


WOMAN  AND  EDUCATION.  10$ 

knowing  and  loving,  in  being  and  doing,  makes 
it  the  privilege  and  duty  of  all  to  help  all  to 
know  and  love,  to  become  and  do.  Is  it  true? 
Is  it  right?  These  are  the  immortal  questions, 
springing  from  what  within  us  is  most  like  God, 
and  they  who  deal  deceitfully  with  them  have 
no  claim  upon  attention.  They  are  jugglers 
and  liars. 

What  is  developed  is  not  really  changed,  but 
made  more  fully  itself,  and  by  giving  to  woman 
a  truer  education,  the  beauty  and  charm  of  her 
nature  will  be  brought  more  effectively  into 
play.  None  of  us  love  "a  woman  impudent 
and  mannish  grown ;"  but  knowledge  and  cul- 
ture and  strength  of  mind  and  heart  and  body 
have  no  tendency  to  produce  such  a  caricature. 
Whether  there  is  question  of  man  or  woman, 
the  aim  and  end  of  education  is  to  bring  forth 
in  the  individual  the  divine  image  of  humanity 
as  it  exists  in  the  thought  of  God,  as  it  is 
revealed  in  the  life  of  Christ. 

"  Yet  in  the  long  years  liker  must  they  grow  ; 
The  man  be  more  of  woman,  she  more  of  man : 
He  gain  in  sweetness  and  in  moral  height, 
Nor  lose  the  wrestling  thews  that  throw  the  world; 
She  mental  breadth,  nor  fail  in  childward  care  ; 
More  as  the  double-natured  poet  each." 

The  apothegm,  man  is  born  to  do,  woman 
to  endure,  no  longer  commends    itself  to    our 


106      MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

judgment.  Both  are  born  to  do  and  to  endure; 
and  in  educating  girls,  we  now  understand  that 
it  is  our  business  to  strengthen  them  and  to 
stimulate  them  to  self-activity.  We  strive  to 
give  them  self-control,  sanity,  breadth  of  view, 
wide  sympathies,  and  an  abiding  sense  of  justice. 
One  might,  indeed,  be  tempted  to  think  it  were 
well  woman  should  retain  a  touch  of  folly,  that 
she  still  may  be  able  to  believe  the  man  she 
loves  is  half  divine  ;  but  to  think  so  one  must  be 
a  man,  with  his  genius  for  self-conceit.  To  train 
a  girl  chiefly  with  a  view  to  success  in  society 
is  to  pervert,  is  to  hinder  from  attaining  to  the 
power  of  free,  rich,  and  varied  life.  It  is  to 
neglect  education  for  accomplishments;  it  is  to 
prefer  form  to  substance,  manner  to  conduct, 
graceful  carriage  and  dress  to  thought  and  love. 
We  degrade  her  when  we  consider  her  as  little 
else  than  a  candidate  for  matrimony.  A  man 
may  remain  single  and  become  the  noblest  of  his 
kind,  and  so  may  a  woman.  Marriage  is  first  of 
all  for  the  race ;  the  individual  may  stand  alone 
and  grow  to  the  full  measure  of  human  strength 
and  worth.  The  popular  contempt  for  single 
women  who  have  reached  a  certain  age,  is  but 
a  survival  of  the  contempt  for  all  women  which 
is  found  among  savages  and  barbarians.  In  the 
education  of  woman,  as  of  man,  the  end  is  in- 
crease of  power,  —  of  the  might  there  is  in  in- 


WOMAN  AND  EDUCATION.  107 

tclligence  and  love,  of  the  strength  there  is  in 
gentleness  and  sweetness  and  light,  of  the  vigor 
there  is  in  health,  in  the  rhythmic  pulse  and  in 
deep  breathing,  of  the  sustaining  joy  there  is  in 
pure  affection  and  in  devotion  to  high  purposes. 
Whether  there  is  question  of  boys  or  of  girls, 
the  safe  way  is  to  strive  to  make  them  all  it  is 
possible  for  them  to  become,  putting  our  trust 
for  the  rest  in  human  nature  and  in  God ;  for 
talent,  like  genius,  is  a  divine  gift,  and  to  pre- 
vent its  development  is  to  sin  against  religion 
and  humanity.  For  girls  as  for  boys,  the  aim 
should  be  not  knowledge,  but  power;  not 
accomplishments,  but  faculty.  Nine-tenths  of 
what  we  learn  in  school  is  quickly  forgotten, 
and  is  valueless  unless  it  issue  in  increase  of 
moral  and  intellectual  strength.  "  In  whatever 
direction  I  turn  my  thoughts,"  says  Schleier- 
macher,  "  it  seems  to  me  that  woman's  nature  is 
nobler  and  her  life  happier  than  man's ;  and  if 
ever  I  play  with  an  idle  wish  it  is  that  I  might 
be  a  woman."  Hardly  any  man,  I  imagine, 
would  rather  be  a  woman,  and  many  women 
doubtless  would  rather  be  men ;  and  yet  there  is 
much  in  Schleiermacher's  thought,  if  we  believe, 
as  the  wise  do  believe,  that  love  is  the  best,  and 
that  they  who  love  most  are  the  highest  and, 
therefore,  the  happiest,  since  the  noblest  mind 
the  best  contentment  has. 


108       MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

What  fountains  to  the  desert  are, 
What  flowers  to  the  fresh  young  spring, 
What  heaven's  breast  is  to  the  star, 
That  woman's  love  to  earth  doth  bring. 

Whether  mid  deserts  she  is  found, 
Or  girt  about  by  happy  home, 
Where'er  she  treads  is  holy  ground 
Above  which  rises  love's  high  dome. 

Or  be  she  mother  called  or  wife, 
Or  sister  or  the  soul's  twin  mate, 
She  still  is  each  man's  best  of  life, 
His  crown  of  joy,  his  high  estate. 

What  is  our  Christian  faith  but  the  revelation  of 
the  supreme  and  infinite  worth  of  love,  as  being 
of  the  essence  of  God  himself?  Is  it  not  easy 
to  believe  that  to  a  loving  soul  in  an  all-chaste 
body  the  unseen  world  may  lie  open  to  view? 
That  Joan  of  Arc  saw  heavenly  visions  and 
heard  whisperings  from  higher  worlds,  who  can 
doubt  that  has  considered  how  her  most  pure 
womanly  soul  redeemed  a  whole  people,  and,  by 
them  forsaken,  from  midst  fierce  flames  took 
its  flight  to  God? 

Should  women  vote?  The  rule  of  the  people 
is  good  only  when  it  is  the  rule  of  the  good  and 
wise  among  the  people,  and  of  these,  women,  in 
great  numbers,  arc  part.  The  leadership  of  the 
best  comes  near  to  being  the  leadership  of  God. 
But  the  question  of  the  suffrage  for  women  is 
grave;   it  is  one  on  which  an  enlightened  mind 


WOMAN  AND  EDUCATION.  109 

will  long  hold  judgment  in  suspense.  Does  not 
political  life,  as  it  exists  in  our  democracy,  tend 
to  corrupt  both  voters  and  office-seekers?  Is 
it  not  largely  a  life  of  cant,  pretence,  and  hypoc- 
risy, of  venality,  corruption,  and  selfishness,  of 
lying,  abuse,  and  vulgarity?  Do  not  public 
men,  like  public  women,  sell  themselves,  though 
in  a  different  way?  Is  the  professional  politi- 
cian, the  professional  caucus-manipulator,  the 
professional  voter,  the  type  of  man  we  can 
admire  or  respect  even?  The  objection  so 
frequently  raised,  that  political  life  would  cor- 
rupt women,  has,  at  least,  the  merit  of  a  certain 
grim  humorousness.  Could  it  by  any  chance 
make  them  as  bad  as  it  makes  men?  To  tell 
them  they  are  the  queens  of  the  home,  to  whom 
the  mingling  with  plebeians  is  degrading,  is  an 
insult  to  their  intelligence.  We  have  forsworn 
kings  and  queens,  both  in  private  and  in  public 
life,  and  at  home  women  are,  for  the  most  part, 
drudges.  What  need  is  there  of  a  hollow  phrase 
when  the  appeal  to  truth  is  obvious? 

"  A  servant  with  this  clause 
Makes  drudgery  divine; 
Who  sweeps  a  room  as  for  thy  laws, 
Makes  that  and  the  action  fine." 

Active  participation  in  political  life  is  not  a 
refining,    an    ennobling,    a    purifying    influence. 


IIO      MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

Is  it  desirable  that  the  half  of  the  people  to 
which  the  interests  of  the  home,  of  the  heart,  of 
the  religious  and  moral  education  of  the  young 
are  especially  committed,  should  be  hurled  into 
the  maelstrom  of  selfish  passion  and  coarse 
excitement? 

The  smartness  and  self-assertiveness  of  Amer- 
ican women  are  already  excessive;  they  lack 
repose,  serenity,  and  self-restraint.  If  they  rush 
into  the  arena  of  noisy  and  vulgar  strife,  will 
not  the  evil  be  increased?  Will  not  the  politi- 
cal woman  lose  something  of  the  sacred  power 
of  the  wife  and  mother?  Are  not  the  primal 
virtues,  those  which  make  life  good  and  fair  and 
which  are  a  woman's  glory,  —  are  they  not 
humble  and  quiet  and  unobtrusive?  The  suf- 
frage has  not  emancipated  the  masses  of  men, 
who  are  still  held  captive  in  the  chains  of  pov- 
erty and  dehumanizing  toil. 

Do  women  themselves,  those,  at  least,  in 
whom  the  woman  soul,  which  draws  us  on  and 
upward,  is  most  itself,  desire  that  the  vote  be 
given  them? 

But  whatever  our  opinions  on  the  subject  may 
be,  let  us  not  lose  composure.  "  If  a  great 
change  is  to  be  made,"  says  Edmund  Burke, 
"  the  minds  of  men  will  be  fitted  to  it,  the  general 
opinions  and  feelings  will  draw  that  way.  Every 
fear,  every  hope  will  forward  it;   and  then  they 


WOMAN  AND  EDUCATION.  Ill 

who  persist  in  opposing  the  mighty  current  will 
appear  rather  to  resist  the  decrees  of  Providence 
itself  than  the  mere  designs  of  men.  They  will 
not  be  resolute  and  firm,  but  perverse  and 
obstinate." 

Whether  or  not  woman  shall  become  a  politi- 
cian, there  is  no  doubt  that  she  is  becoming  a 
worker  in  a  constantly  widening  field.  The 
elementary  education  of  the  country  is  already 
intrusted  to  her.  She  is  taking  her  position  in 
the  higher  institutions  of  learning.  She  has 
gained  admission  to  professional  life.  In  the 
business  world,  her  competition  with  man  is 
more  and  more  felt.  In  literature,  in  our  coun- 
try at  least,  her  appreciativeness  is  greater  than 
man's,  and  her  performance  not  inferior  to  his. 
There  is  a  larger  number  of  serious  students 
among  women  than  among  men.  In  the  divinely 
imposed  task  of  self-education,  they  are  fast 
becoming  the  chief  workers.  They  are  the 
great  readers  of  books,  especially  of  poetry. 
The  muse  was  the  first  school-mistress,  and  the 
love  of  genuine  poetry  is  still  the  finest  educa- 
tional influence.  The  vulgar  passions  and  coarse 
appetites  which  rob  young  men  of  faith  in  the 
higher  life  and  of  the  power  to  labor  perscver- 
ingly  for  ideal  ends,  have  little  hold  upon  the 
soul  of  woman.  Her  betrayers  are  frivolity  and 
vanity,  and  a  too  confiding  heart;  and  the  more 


I  1 2      MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCA  TION. 

she  is  educated  the  less  will  she  take  delight  in 
what  is  merely  external,  and  the  greater  will  be- 
come her  ability  to  bring  sentiment  under  the 
control  of  reason  and  conscience. 

There  are  not  two  educations,  then,  one  for 
nun,  and  another  for  woman,  but  both  alike  we 
bid  contend  to  the  uttermost  for  completeness 
of  life ;  bid  both  trust  in  human  educableness, 
which  makes  possible  the  hope  of  attaining  all 
divine  things.  True  faith  in  education  is  ever 
associated  with  genuine  humility.  Only  they 
strive  infinitely  who  feel  that  their  lack  is 
infinite. 

The  power  of  education  is  as  many  sided  and 
as  manifold  as  life.  There  is  no  finest  seed  or 
flower  or  fruit,  no  most  serviceable  animal, 
which  has  not  been  brought  to  perfection  by 
human  thought  and  labor,  or  which,  were  this 
help  withdrawn,  would  not  degenerate ;  and  if 
the  highest  thought  and  the  most  intelligent 
labor  were  made  to  bear  ceaselessly  upon  the 
improvement  of  the  race  of  man,  we  should 
have  a  new  world. 

When  we  consider  all  the  beauty,  knowledge, 
and  love  which  are  within  man's  reach,  how  is 
it  possible  not  to  believe  that  infinitely  more 
and  higher  lie  beyond?  Call  to  mind  whatever 
quality  of  life,  physical,  intellectual,  or  moral, 
and  you  will  have  little  difficulty  in  seeing  that 


WOMAN  AND  EDUCATION.  113 

it  is  a  result  of  education.  We  are  born,  indeed, 
with  unequal  endowments;  but  strength  of  limb, 
ease  and  swiftness  of  motion,  grace  and  fluency 
of  speech,  modulation  of  voice,  distinctness  of 
articulation,  correctness  of  pronunciation,  power 
of  attention,  fineness  of  ear,  clearness  of  vision, 
control  of  hand  and  certainty  of  touch  in  draw- 
ing, writing,  painting,  playing  upon  instruments 
and  operating  with  the  knife,  truth  and  vividness 
of  imagination,  force  of  will,  refinement  of  man- 
ner, perfection  of  taste,  skill  in  argument,  purity 
of  desire,  rectitude  of  purpose,  power  of  sym- 
pathy and  love,  together  with  whatever  else  goes 
to  the  making  of  a  perfect  man  or  woman,  are 
all  acquired  through  educational  processes. 

Education  is  the  training  of  a  human  being 
with  a  view  to  make  him  all  he  may  become; 
and  hence  it  is  possible  to  educate  one's  self  in 
many  ways  and  on  many  sides. 

Refinement,  grace,  and  cleanliness  are  aims 
and  ends,  as  truly  as  are  vigor  and  suppleness 
of  mind  and  strength  and  purity  of  heart.  Like 
sunshine  and  flowers  and  the  songs  of  birds, 
they  help  to  make  life  pleasant  and  beautiful. 
Even  the  fishes  are  not  clean,  but  the  only  clean 
animal  is  here  and  there  a  man  or  a  woman  who 
has  forsworn  dirt  visible  and  invisible.  We  can 
educate  ourselves  in  every  direction,  to  sleep 
well  even,  and  neither  physicians  nor  poets  have 
8 


114      MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

told  half  the  good  there  is  in  sleep.  The  bare 
thought  of  it  always  brings  to  me  the  memory 
of  lulling  showers,  and  grazing  sheep,  and  mur- 
muring streams,  and  bees  at  work,  and  the 
breath  of  flowers  and  cooing  doves  and  children 
lying  on  the  sward,  and  lazy  clouds  slumbering 
in  azure  skies.  It  is  pleasant  as  the  approach 
of  evening,  fresh  and  fair  as  the  rising  sun  which 
sets  all  the  world  singing,  sacred  and  pure  as 
babes  smiling  in  their  dreams  on  the  breasts 
of  gentle  mothers.  If  thou  canst  not  see  the 
divine  worth  in  nature  and  in  works  of  genius, 
it  is  because  thou  art  what  thou  art.  Can  the 
worm  at  thy  feet  recognize  thy  superiority? 
The  blind  and  the  heedless  see  nothing,  O  fool- 
ish maid. 

What  I  know  and  love  is  of  my  very  being, 
is,  in  fact,  my  knowing  and  loving  self.  Quality 
of  knowledge  and  love  determines  quality  of 
life,  and  when  I  know  and  love  God  I  am  divine. 
As  trees  are  enrooted  in  earth,  as  fishes  are 
immersed  in  water,  and  our  bodies  in  air,  that 
they  may  live,  so  the  soul  has  its  being  in  God 
that  it  may  have  life,  that  it  may  know  and  love. 
I  become  self-conscious  only  in  becoming  con- 
scious of  what  is  not  myself ;  and  when  the 
not-myself  is  the  Eternal,  is  God,  my  self-con- 
sciousness is  divine.  The  marvel  and  the  mys- 
tery of  our  being  is  that  self-consciousness  should 


WOMAN  AND  EDUCATION.  1 1  5 

exist  at  all,  not  that  it  should  continue  to  exist 
forever.  But  words  cannot  strengthen  or  ex- 
plain or  destroy  our  belief  in  God,  in  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul,  and  in  the  freedom  of  the 
will.  The  antagonism  supposed  to  exist  between 
scientific  facts  or  theories  and  religious  faith 
would  cease  to  be  recognized  as  real,  were  it 
not  for  the  eagerness  with  which  those  who  are 
incapable  of  profound  and  comprehensive  views, 
catch  up  certain  shibboleths  and  hurl  them  like 
firebrands  upon  the  combustible  imaginations 
of  the  unthinking. 

To  prove,  means,  in  the  proper  sense  of  the 
word,  to  test,  to  bring  ideas,  opinions,  and  be- 
liefs to  the  ordeal  of  reason,  of  accepted  stan- 
dards of  judgment.  It  is  a  criticism  of  the  mind 
and  its  operations,  and  hence  it  may  easily  hap- 
pen that  to  prove  is  to  weaken  and  unsettle. 
In  what  is  most  vital,  in  belief  in  God,  immor- 
tality, and  freedom  of  the  will,  in  religion  and 
morality,  our  faith  is  stronger  than  any  proof 
that  may  be  brought  in  its  defence;  and  this 
is  not  less  true  of  our  faith  in  the  reality  of 
nature  and  the  laws  of  science  ;  and  when  this 
is  made  plain  by  criticism,  those  whose  mental 
grasp  is  weak  or  partial,  are  confused  and 
tempted  to  doubt.  They  are  not  helped,  but 
harmed,  and  our  ceaseless  discussions  and  prov- 
ings,  in  press  and  pulpit,  are  the  source  of  much 


Il6      MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

of  the  unrest,  religious  doubt,  and  moral  weak- 
ness of  the  age.  The  people  need  to  be  taught 
by  those  who  know  and  believe,  not  by  those 
whose  skill  is  chiefly  syllogistic  and  critical. 
Philosophic  speculation  is  like  a  vast  mountain 
into  which  men,  generation  after  generation,  have 
sunk  shafts  in  search  of  some  priceless  treasure, 
and  have  left  in  the  materials  they  have  thrown 
out  the  mark  and  evidence  of  failure.  But  the 
noblest  minds  will  still  be  haunted  by  the  infinite 
mystery  which  they  will  seek  in  vain  to  explain. 
Their  faith  in  reason,  like  that  of  the  vulgar, 
cannot  be  shaken,  nor  can  defeat,  running 
through  thousands  of  years,  enfeeble  their  cour- 
age or  dampen  their  ardor.  Let  our  increasing 
insight  into  Nature's  laws  fill  us  with  thankful- 
ness and  joy.  It  is  good,  and  makes  for  good. 
Let  us  bow  with  respect  and  reverence  before 
the  army  of  patient  investigators  who  bring 
highly  disciplined  faculties  to  bear  upon  the 
most  useful  researches.  Let  knowledge  grow. 
A  nearer  and  truer  view  of  the  boundless  fact 
will  not  make  the  world  less  wonderful,  or  the 
soul  less  divine,  or  God  less  adorable.  If  one 
should  declare  that  it  is  contrary  to  the  teach- 
ings of  faith  to  hold  that  conversation  may  be 
carried  on  by  persons  a  thousand  miles  apart, 
it  would  be  sufficient  to  reply  that  such  conver- 
sation takes  place,  and  that  to  attempt  to  annul 


WOMAN  AND  EDUCATION.  \\J 

fact  by  doctrine  is  absurd.  There  is  no  excuse 
for  the  controversial  conflict  between  science  and 
religion ;  for  science  is  ascertained  fact,  not 
theory  about  fact,  and  when  fact  is  rightly  as- 
certained it  is  accepted  of  all  men.  The  most 
certain  fact,  for  each  one,  is  that  he  knows  and 
loves,  and  that  this  power  comes  to  him  through 
communion  with  what  is  higher  and  deeper  and 
wider  than  himself,  — with  God. 

There  was  a  time  when  collisions  among  the 
masses  of  the  sidereal  system  were  frequent, 
shocks  of  unimaginable  force  by  which  the  ce- 
lestial bodies  were  shivered  into  atoms,  so  that 
what  now  remains  is  but  a  survival  of  worlds 
which  escaped  destruction  in  the  chaotic  strug- 
gle when  suns  madly  rushed  on  one  another  and 
rose  in  star-dust  about  the  face  of  God,  who  was, 
and  is,  and  shall  be,  eternal  and  forever  the 
same.  Where  there  is  no  thinker,  there  is  no 
thing.  It  is  in,  and  through,  and  with  Him  that 
we  know  ourselves  and  our  environment  ;  and 
recognize  that  our  particular  life  is,  in  its  impli- 
cations, universal  and  divine.  He  is  the  prin- 
ciple of  unity  which  is  present  in  whatever  is 
an  object  of  thought,  and  which  gives  the  mind 
the  power  to  co-ordinate  the  manifold  of  sen- 
sation into  the  harmony  of  truth ;  He  is  the 
principle  of  goodness  and  beauty,  which  makes 
the  universe   fair,   and  thrills  the  heart  of  man 


Il8      MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION 

with  hope  and  love.  Amid  endless  change,  He 
alone  is  permanent,  and  He  is  power  and  wis- 
dom and  love,  and  they  only  arc  good  and  wise 
and  strong  who  cleave  to  His  eternal  and  abso- 
lute being.  But  since  here  and  now  the  real 
world  of  matter  as  distinguished  from  the  ap- 
parent is  hidden  behind  the  veil  of  sense,  it  is 
vain  to  hope  that  the  world  of  eternal  life  shall 
be  made  plain  to  the  pure  reason.  Religion, 
like  life,  is  faith,  hope,  and  love,  striving  and 
doing,  not  intellectual  intuition  and  beatific 
vision.  We  find  it  impossible  to  separate  our 
thought  of  God  from  that  of  infinite  goodness 
and  love  ;  but  when  we  look  away  from  our  own 
souls  to  Nature's  pitiless  and  fatal  laws,  we  real- 
ize that  this  faith  in  all-ernbracing  and  all-con- 
quering love  is  opposed  by  seemingly  insur- 
mountable difficulties.  It  is  a  mystery  we  be- 
lieve, not  a  truth  we  comprehend.  Systems  of 
philosophy,  morality,  and  religion,  however  cun- 
ningly devised,  cannot  make  men  philosophers, 
sages,  or  saints.  This  they  can  become  only 
through  the  communion  which  faith,  hope,  and 
love  have  power  to  establish  with  the  living 
fountain-head  of  truth,  wisdom,  and  goodness. 

The  pursuit  of  knowledge,  like  the  struggle 
for  wealth  and  place,  ends  in  disillusion,  in  the 
disappointment  which  results  from  the  contrast 
between  what  we  hope  for  and  what  we  attain. 


WOMAN  AND  EDUCATION.  119 

The  greater  the  success,  the  more  complete  the 
disenchantment.  As  the  rich  and  famous  best 
sec  the  unsatisfactoriness  of  wealth  and  honor, 
so  they  who  know  much  best  understand  how 
knowledge  avails  not,  how  it  is  but  a  cloud- 
built  citadel,  whose  foundations  rest  upon  the 
uncertain  air,  whose  walls  and  turrets  lose  in 
substance  what  they  gain  in  height.  When  we 
imagine  we  know  all  things,  we  awake  as  from 
a  dream  to  find  that  we  know  nothing,  that  our 
knowing  is  but  a  believing,  our  science  but  a 
faith.  We  are  little  children  who  wander  in  a 
father's  wide  domain,  seeing  many  things  and 
understanding  not  anything,  who  imagine  we 
are  in  a  real  and  abiding  world,  while  in  truth 
we  are  but  passing  through  the  picture-gallery 
of  the  senses. 

Faith,  Hope,  and  Love  :  —  these  three 

Are  life's  deep  root ; 
They  reach  into  infinity, 

Whence  life  doth  shoot. 
But  Faith  and  Hope  have  not  attained 

The  Eternal  best ; 
While  Love,  sweet  Love,  the  end  has  gained, — 

In  God  to  rest. 

So  long  as  these  life-begetting,  life-sustaining, 
and  life-developing  powers  hold  mightier  sway 
over  the  soul  of  woman  than  over  that  of  man, 
so  long  will  woman's  heel   crush   the   serpent's 


120      MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION 

head  and  woman's  arms  bear  salvation  to  the 
world.  She  will  not  worship  the  rising  sun,  or 
become  the  idolatress  of  success,  but  within  her 
heart  will  cherish  fallen  heroes  and  lost  causes 
and  the  memory  of  all  the  sorrows  by  which 
God  humanizes  the  world. 

If  we  consider  mankind  merely  as  a  phenom- 
enon, the  extinction  of  the  race  need  give  us 
little  more  concern  than  the  disappearance  of 
Pterodactyls  and  Ichthyosauri.  What  repels 
from  such  contemplation  is  not  man's  physical, 
but  his  spiritual  being,  —  that  which  makes  him 
capable  of  thought  and  love,  of  faith  and  hope. 
The  universe  is  anthropomorphized,  for  whither- 
soever man  looks  he  sees  the  reflection  of  his 
own  countenance.  What  he  calls  things  are 
stamped  with  the  impress  and  likeness  of  him- 
self, as  he  himself  is  an  image  of  the  eternal 
mind,  in  which  all  things  are  mirrored. 

An  atheist  or  a  materialist,  an  agnostic  or  a 
pessimist,  may  have  greater  knowledge,  greater 
intellectual  force  than  the  most  devout  believer 
in  God;  but  is  it  possible  for  him  to  feel  so 
thoroughly  at  home  in  the  world,  to  feel  so 
deeply  that,  whatever  happens,  it  is  and  will  be 
well  with  him?  In  an  atheistic  world  the  spirit 
of  man  is  ill  at  ease.  He  who  has  no  God 
makes  himself  the  centre  of  all  things,  and,  like 
a  spoiled   child,  loses  the   power    to   admire,  to 


WOMAN  AND  EDUCATION.  121 

enjoy,  and  to  love.  Genuine  faith  in  God  is 
such  an  infinite  force  that  one  may  be  tempted 
to  doubt  whether  it  is  found. 

Undisciplined  minds  become  victims  of  the 
formulas  they  receive,  and  if  what  they  have 
accepted  as  truth  is  shown  to  be  false  or  incom- 
plete, they  grow  discouraged  and  lose  faith ; 
but  the  wise  know  that  the  verbal  vesture  of 
truth  is  a  symbol  which  has  but  a  proximate 
and  relative  value.  The  spirit  is  alive,  and 
ceaselessly  outgrows  or  transmutes  the  body 
with  which  it  is  clothed.  What  we  can  do  with 
anything, — with  money,  knowledge,  wealth, — 
depends  on  what  we  are.  Ruskin  prefers  holy 
work  to  holy  worship;  but  the  antithesis  is  mis- 
taken, for  if  worship  is  holy  it  impels  to  work, 
if  work  is  holy  it  impels  to  worship.  God's 
most  sacred  visible  temple  is  a  human  body, 
and  its  profanation  is  the  worst  sacrilege. 

All  true  belief,  when  we  come  to  the  last 
analysis,  is  belief  in  God,  and  the  teacher  of 
religion  must  keep  this  fact  always  in  view. 

The  law  of  the  struggle  for  life  applies  to 
opinions,  beliefs,  hopes,  aims,  ideals,  just  as  it 
applies  to  individuals  and  species.  Whatever 
survives,  survives  through  conflict,  because  it  is 
tit  to  survive.  It  does  not  follow,  however,  that 
the  best  survives,  though  we  must  think  that  in 
the  end    this  is  so,  since  we    believe    in    God. 


122       MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION 

When  serious  minds  grapple  with  problems  so 
remote  from  vulgar  opinion  that  they  seem  to 
be  meaningless  or  insoluble,  the  multitude,  ever 
ready,  like  a  crowd  of  boys,  to  mock  and  jeer, 
break  forth  into  insult.  These  men,  they  cry 
are  wicked,  or  they  are  fools. 

In  a  society  where  it  is  assumed  that  all  are 
equal,  those  who  are  really  superior  incur  sus- 
picion as  though  it  were  criminal  to  be  different 
from  the  multitude ;  and  hence  they  rarely  win 
the  favor  of  the  crowd.  The  life-current  of 
those  who  stir  up  a  noise  about  them,  runs 
shallow.  The  champion  of  the  prize-ring  or 
the  race-course  is  hailed  with  shouts,  for  the 
crowd  understand  the  achievement;  but  what 
can  they  know  of  the  worth  of  a  sage  or  a  saint? 
The  noblest  struggles  are  of  the  mind  and  heart 
wrestling  with  unseen  powers,  with  spirits,  as 
St.  Paul  says,  that  they  may  compel  them  to 
give  up  the  secret  of  truth  and  holiness.  A 
glimpse  of  truth,  a  thrill  of  love,  is  better  than 
the  applause  of  a  whole  city.  In  striving  stead- 
fastly for  thy  own  perfection  and  the  happiness 
of  others  thou  walkcst  and  workest  with  God. 
Thy  progress  will  help  others  to  labor  for  their 
own,  and  the  happiness  thou  givest  will  return 
to  thee  and  become  thine;  and  what  is  the  will 
of  God,  if  it  is  not  the  perfection  and  happiness 
of  his  children  ?    To  have  merely  enough  strength 


WOMAN  AND  EDUCATION.  1 23 

to  bear  life's  burden,  to  do  the  daily  task,  to 
face  the  cares  which  return  with  the  sun  and 
follow  us  into  the  night,  is  to  be  weak,  is  to 
lack  the  strong  spirit  for  which  work  is  light  as 
play,  and  whose  secret  is  heard  in  whispers  by 
the  hero  and  the  saint.  To  be  able  to  give  joy 
and  help  to  others  we  must  have  more  life, 
wisdom,  virtue,  and  happiness  than  we  need  for 
ourselves ;  and  it  is  in  giving  joy  and  help  to 
others  that  we  ourselves  receive  increase  of  life, 
wisdom,  virtue,  and  happiness.  Be  persuaded 
within  thy  deepest  soul,  that  moral  evil  can 
never  be  good,  and  that  sin  can  never  be  gain. 
So  act  that  if  all  men  acted  as  thou,  all  would 
be  well.  If  to  be  like  others  is  thy  aim,  thou 
art  predestined  to  remain  inferior.  To  be  fol- 
lowed and  applauded  is  to  be  diverted  from 
one's  work.  Better  alone  with  it  in  a  garret 
than  a  guest  in  a  banquet  hall. 

Let  thy  prayer  be  work  and  work  thy  prayer, 
As  God's  truth  and  love  are  everywhere, 
And  whether  by  word  or  deed  thou  strive 
In  Him  alone  thou  canst  be  alive. 

If  thou  hast  done  thy  best,  God  will  give  it 
worth. 

If  thou  carest  not  for  truth  and  love,  for  thee 
they  are  nothing  worth ;  but  it  is  because  thou 
thyself  art  worthless.     Wisdom  and  virtue  is  all 


124      MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

thou  lackest;  of  other  things  thou  hast  enough. 
When  the  passion  for  self-improvement  is  strong 
within  us,  all  our  relations  to  our  fellow-men 
and  nature  receive  new  meaning  and  power,  as 
opportunities  to  make  ourselves  what  it  is 
possible  for  us  to  become ;  and  as  we  grow 
accustomed  to  take  this  view  of  whatever  hap- 
pens, we  are  made  aware  that  disagreeable 
things  are  worth  as  much  as  the  pleasant,  that 
foes  are  as  useful  as  friends.  The  obstacle 
arrests  attention,  provokes  effort,  and  educates. 
It  throws  the  light  back  upon  the  eye,  and 
reveals  the  world  of  color  and  form ;  from  it  all 
sounds  reverberate.  We  grow  by  overcoming ; 
the  force  we  conquer  becomes  our  own.  We 
rise  on  difficulties  we  surmount.  What  opposes, 
arouses,  strengthens,  and  disciplines  the  will,  dis- 
closes to  the  mind  its  power,  and  implants  faith 
in  the  efficacy  of  patient,  persevering  labor. 
They  who  shrink  from  the  combat  are  already 
defeated.  To  make  everything  easy  is  to  smooth 
the  way  whereby  we  descend.  To  surround  the 
young  with  what  they  ought  themselves  to 
achieve  is  to  enfeeble  and  corrupt  them.  Happy 
is  the  poor  man's  son,  who  whithersoever  he 
turns,  sees  the  obstacle  rise  to  challenge  him  to 
become  a  man ;  miserable  the  children  of  the 
rich,  whose  cursed-blessed  fortune  is  an  ever- 
present  invitation  to   idleness  and  conceit.     ( ) 


WOMAN  AND  EDUCATION  1 25 

mothers,  you  whose  love  is  the  best  any  of  us 
have  known,  harden  your  sons,  and  urge  them 
on,  not  in  the  race  for  wealth,  but  in  the  steep 
and  narrow  way  wherein,  through  self-conquest 
and  self-knowledge,  they  rise  toward  God  and 
all  high  things.  Nothing  that  has  ever  been 
said  of  your  power  tells  the  whole  truth,  and 
the  only  argument  against  you  is  the  men  who 
are  your  children.  Education  is  always  the 
result  of  personal  influence.  A  mother,  a  father 
in  the  home,  a  pure  and  loving  heart  at  the 
altar,  a  true  man  or  woman  in  the  school,  a  noble 
mind  uttering  itself  in  literature^  which  is  per- 
sonal thought  and  expression,  —  these  are  the 
forces  which  educate.  Life  proceeds  from  life, 
and  religion,  which  is  the  highest  power  of  life, 
can  proceed  only  from  God  and  religious  souls. 
Not  by  preaching  and  teaching,  but  by  living 
the  life,  can  we  make  ourselves  centres  of 
spiritual  influence. 

Be  like  others,  walk  in  the  broad  way,  one  of 
a  herd,  content  to  graze  in  a  common  pasture, 
believing  equality  man's  highest  law,  though  its 
meaning  be  equality  with  the  brute.  Is  this 
our  ideal?  It  is  an  atheistic  creed.  There  is 
no  God,  there  is  nothing  but  matter,  but  atoms, 
and  atoms  arc  alike  and  equal,  —  let  men  be  so 
too.  To  struggle  with  infinite  faith  and  hope 
for  some  divine  good  is  idolatry,  is  to  believe  in 


126      MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

God ;  to  be  one's  self  is  the  unpardonable  sin. 
It  is  thy  aim  to  rise,  to  distinguish  thyself;  this 
means  thou  wouldst  have  higher  place,  more 
money,  a  greater  house  than  thy  neighbor's. 
It  is  a  foolish  ambition.  Instead  of  trying  to 
distinguish  thyself,  strive  to  become  thyself,  to 
make  thyself  worthy  of  the  approval  of  God 
and  wise  men.  "  I  am  not  to  be  pitied,  my 
lord,"  said  Bayard;  "I  die  doing  my  duty." 
God  has  not  given  His  world  into  thy  keeping, 
but  he  has  given  thee  to  thyself  to  fashion 
and  complete.  If  thou  art  busy  seeking  money 
or  pleasure  or  praise,  little  time  will  remain 
wherein  to  seek  and  find  thyself.  They  who 
are  interesting  to  themselves,  are  interesting  to 
themselves  alone.  The  self-absorbed  are  the 
victims  of  mental  and  moral  disease.  The  life 
which  flows  out  to  others,  bearing  light  and 
warmth  and  fragrance,  feels  itself  in  the  bless- 
ings it  gives ;  that  which  is  self-centred,  stag- 
nates like  a  pool,  and  becomes  the  habitation  of 
doleful  creatures. 

There  is  a  popularity  which  is  born  of  the 
worship  of  noble  deeds,  —  it  is  the  best.  There 
is  another,  which  comes  of  the  crowd's  passion 
for  what  is  noisy  and  spectacular,  —  it  is  the 
worst.  The  one  is  the  popularity  of  heroes,  the 
other  that  of  charlatans. 

Whatever  thy  chosen  work,  it  is  thy  business 


WOMAN  AND  EDUCATION.  \2J 

to  make  thyself  a  man  or  a  woman,  and  not  a 
mere  specialist;  yet  in  following  a  specialty 
with  enthusiasm,  thou  shalt  go  farther  towards 
perfection  and  completeness  of  life  than  the 
multitude  of  pretenders,  who  are  not  in  earnest 
about  anything.  Every  harsh  and  unjust  sen- 
timent, every  narrow  and  unworthy  thought 
consented  to  and  entertained,  remains  like  a 
stain  upon  character.  Whoever  speaks  or 
writes  against  freedom  or  knowledge  or  faith  in 
God,  or  love  of  man  or  reverence  of  woman,  but 
makes  himself  ridiculous ;  for  men  feel  and 
believe  that  their  true  world  is  a  world  of  high 
thoughts  and  noble  sentiments,  and  they  can 
neither  respect  nor  trust  those  who  strive  to 
weaken  their  hold  upon  this  world.  Become 
thyself;  do  thy  work.  For  this,  all  thy  days 
are  not  too  many  or  too  long.  If  thou  and  it 
are  worthy  to  be  known,  the  presentation  can 
be  made  in  briefest  time ;  and  it  matters  little 
though  it  be  deferred  until  after  thy  death. 

Besides  whatever  other  conditions,  time  is 
necessary  to  bring  the  best  things  to  maturity, 
and  to  imagine  that  excellence  demands  less 
than  lifelong  work,  is  to  mistake.  It  is  by  the 
patient  observation  of  the  infinitesimal  that 
science  has  done  its  best  work  ;  and  it  is  only 
by  unwearying  attention  to  the  thousand  little 
things  of  life  that  we  may  hope  to  make  some 


128      MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

approach  to  moral  and  intellectual  perfection. 
He  who  works  with  joy  and  cheerfulness  in  the 
field  which  himself  has  found  and  chosen,  will 
acquire  knowledge  and  skill,  and  his  laborwill  be 
transformed  into  increase  and  newness  of  life. 

We  gain  a  clear  view  of  things  only  when  we 
set  them  apart  from  ourselves,  and  contem- 
plate them  simply  as  objects  of  thought.  To 
see  them  aright  we  must  be  free  from  emotion 
and  behold  them  in  the  cold  air  of  the  intellect. 
To  look  on  them  as  in  some  way  bound  up 
with  our  personal  good  or  evil,  is  to  have  the 
vision  blurred.  Study  in  the  spirit  of  an  in- 
vestigator, who  has  no  other  than  a  scientific 
interest  in  what  he  sets  himself  to  examine. 
The  wise  physician  is  wholly  intent  upon  mak- 
ing a  correct  diagnosis,  though  the  patient  be 
his  mother.  What  gain  would  self-delusion 
bring  him  or  her  he  loves?  Things  are  what 
they  are,  and  it  is  our  business  to  know  them. 
Observe  and  hold  thy  judgment  in  suspense 
until  patient  looking  shall  have  made  truth  so 
plain  that  to  pass  judgment  is  superfluous. 

The  aim  of  mental  training  is  clearness  and 
accuracy  of  view,  together  with  the  strength  to 
keep  steadfastly  looking  into  the  world  of  intel- 
ligible things.  What  rouses  desire  tends  to 
enslave;  what  gives  delight  tends  to  liberate; 
the  one  appeals  to  the  senses,  the  other  to  the 


WOMAN  A. YD  EDUCATION.  1 29 

soul.  Hence,  intellectual  and  moral  pleasures 
alone  are  associated  with  the  sense  of  freedom 
and  pure  joy.  The  lovers  of  freedom  are  as 
rare  as  the  lovers  of  truth  and  of  God.  For 
most,  liberty  is  but  a  trader's  commodity,  to  be 
parted  with  for  price,  as  their  obedience  is  a 
slave's  service.  The  chief  good  consists  in  act- 
ing justly  and  nobly,  rather  than  in  thinking 
acutely  and  profoundly.  The  free  play  of  the 
mind  is  delightful,  but  the  law  of  moral  obliga- 
tion is  the  deepest  thing  in  us.  Honor,  place, 
and  wealth,  which  are  won  at  the  price  of  self- 
improvement,  the  wise  will  not  desire.  Great  op- 
portunities seldom  present  themselves,  but  every 
moment  of  every  hour  of  thy  conscious  life  is  an 
opportunity  to  improve  thyself,  which  for  thee 
is  the  best  and  most  necessary  thing.  Since  our 
power  over  others  is  small,  but  over  ourselves 
large,  let  us  devote  our  energies  to  self-improve- 
ment. "  Nor  let  any  man  say,"  writes  Locke, 
"  he  cannot  govern  his  passions,  nor  hinder 
them  from  breaking  out  and  carrying  him  into 
action ;  for  what  he  can  do  before  a  prince  or 
great  man  he  can  do  alone  or  in  the  presence 
of  God,  if  he  will." 

The   sure  way  to  happiness   is  to  yield   our- 
selves wholly  to  God,  knowing  that  he  has  care 
of  us,   and    at   the   same  time   to   seek  to   draw 
from    life    whatever    joy    and     delight    it    may 
9 


130      MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

bestow  upon  a  high  mind  and  a  pure  heart, 
receiving  the  blessing  gladly,  conscious  all  the 
while  that  what  is  external  cannot  really  be 
ours,  and  is  not,  therefore,  necessary  to  our 
contentment. 

That  many  are  wiser  and  stronger  than  thou, 
is  not  a  motive  for  discouragement ;  the  depress- 
ing thought  is,  that  so  few  are  wise  and  strong. 
He  who  gives  his  whole  life  to  what  he  believes 
he  is  most  capable  of  doing,  succeeds,  whatever 
be  the  worth  of  his  work.  There  are  many 
who  are  busy  with  many  things ;  but  one  who 
has  a  high  purpose,  and  who  devotes  all  his 
energies  to  its  fulfillment,  is  not  easily  found ; 
and  great  and  interesting  characters  are,  there- 
fore, rare. 

To  what  better  use  can  we  put  life  than  to 
employ  it  in  ameliorating  life?  It  is  to  this 
every  wise  and  good  man  devotes  himself, 
whether  he  be  priest  or  teacher,  physician  or 
lawyer,  philosopher  or  poet,  captain  of  industry 
or  statesman. 


SCOPE  OF  PUBLIC-SCHOOL   EDUCATION.      131 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE   SCOPE   OF   PUBLIC-SCHOOL   EDUCATION. 

OUR  system  of  Public-School  Education  is 
a  result  of  the  faith  of  the  people  in  the 
need  of  universal  intelligence  for  the  mainte- 
nance of  popular  government.  Does  this  system 
include  moral  training?  Since  the  teaching  of 
religious  doctrines  is  precluded,  this,  I  imagine, 
is  what  we  are  to  consider  in  discussing  the 
Scope  of  Public-School  Education.  The  equiv- 
alents of  scope  are  aim,  end,  opportunity,  range 
of  view;  and  the  equivalents  of  education  are 
training,  discipline,  development,  instruction. 
The  proper  meaning  of  the  word  education,  it 
seems,  is  not  a  drawing  out,  but  a  training  up, 
as  vines  arc  trained  to  lay  hold  of  and  rise  by 
means  of  what  is  stronger  than  themselves.  My 
subject,  then,  is  the  aim,  end,  opportunity,  and 
range  of  view  of  public-school  education,  which 
to  be  education  at  all,  in  any  true  sense,  must 
be  a  training,  discipline,  development,  and  in- 
struction of  man's  whole  being,  physical,  intel- 
lectual,  and    moral.     This,    I    suppose,    is   what 


132      MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

Herbert  Spencer  means  when  he  defines  educa- 
tion to  be  a  preparation  for  complete  living. 
Montaigne  says  the  end  of  education  is  wisdom 
and  virtue ;  Comenius  declares  it  to  be  knowl- 
edge, virtue,  and  religion ;  Milton,  likeness  to 
God  through  virtue  and  faith ;  Locke,  health  of 
body,  virtue,  and  good  manners  ;  Herbart,  virtue, 
which  is  the  realization  in  each  one  of  the  idea 
of  inner  freedom  ;  while  Kant  and  Fichte  declare 
it  to  consist  chiefly  in  the  formation  of  character. 
All  these  thinkers  agree  that  the  supreme  end 
of  education  is  spiritual  or  ethical.  The  con- 
trolling aim,  then,  should  be,  not  to  impart 
information,  but  to  upbuild  the  being  which 
makes  us  human,  to  form  habits  of  right  think- 
ing and  doing.  The  ideal  is  virtually  that  of 
Israel,  —  that  righteousness  is  life,  —  though  the 
Greek  ideal  of  beauty  and  freedom  may  not  be 
excluded.  It  is  the  doctrine  that  manners  make 
the  man,  that  conduct  is  three-fourths  of  life, 
leaving  but  one-fourth  for  intellectual  activity 
and  aesthetic  enjoyment;  and  into  this  fourth 
of  life  but  few  ever  enter  in  any  real  way,  while 
all  arc  called  and  may  learn  to  do  good  and 
avoid  evil. 

"  In  the  end,"  says  Ruskin,  "  the  God  of 
heaven  and  earth  loves  active,  modest,  and  kind 
people,  and  hates  idle,  proud,  greedy,  and  cruel 
ones."     Wc    can    all    learn    to    become    active, 


SCOPE   OF  PUBLIC-SCHOOL  EDUCATION.      1 33 

modest,  and  kind ;  to  turn  from  idleness,  pride, 
greed,  and  cruelty.  But  we  cannot  all  make 
ourselves  capable  of  living  in  the  high  regions 
of  pure  thought  and  ideal  beauty;  and  for  the 
few  even  who  are  able  to  do  this,  it  is  still  true 
that  conduct  is  three-fourths  of  life. 

"  The  end  of  man,"  says  Buchner,  "  is  con- 
version into  carbonic  acid,  water,  and  ammonia." 
This  also  is  an  ideal,  and  he  thinks  we  should 
be  pleased  to  know  that  in  dying  we  give  back 
to  the  universe  what  had  been  lent.  He  moral- 
izes too;  but  if  all  we  can  know  of  our  destiny 
is  that  we  shall  be  converted  into  carbonic  acid, 
water,  and  ammonia,  the  sermon  may  be  omit- 
ted. On  such  a  faith  it  is  not  possible  to  found 
a  satisfactory  system  of  education.  Men  will 
always  refuse  to  think  thus  meanly  of  them- 
selves, and  in  answer  to  those  who  would  per- 
suade them  that  they  are  but  brutes,  they  will, 
with  perfect  confidence,  claim  kinship  with  God  ; 
for  from  an  utterly  frivolous  view  of  life  both 
our  reason  and  our  instinct  turn. 

The  Scope  of  Public-School  Education  is  to 
co-operate  with  the  physical,  social,  and  religious 
environment  to  form  good  and  wise  men  and 
women.  Unless  we  bear  in  mind  that  the  school 
is  but  one  of  several  educational  agencies,  we 
shall  not  form  a  right  estimate  of  its  office.  It 
depends  almost  wholly  for  its  success  upon  the 


134      MEANS  AND  ENDS   OF  EDUCATION. 

kind  of  material  furnished  it  by  the  home,  the 
state,  and  the  church  ;  and,  to  confine  our  view 
to  our  own  country,  I  have  little  hesitation  in 
affirming  that  our  home  life,  our  social  and 
political  life,  and  our  religious  life  have  contri- 
buted far  more  to  make  us  what  we  are  than 
any  and  all  of  our  schools.  The  school,  unless 
it  works  in  harmony  with  these  great  forces,  can 
do  little  more  than  sharpen  the  wits.  Many  of 
the  teachers  of  our  Indian  schools  are  doubtless 
competent  and  earnest;  but  their  pupils,  when 
they  return  to  their  tribes,  quickly  lose  what 
they  have  gained,  because  they  are  thrown  into 
an  environment  which  annuls  the  ideals  that 
prevailed  in  the  school.  The  controlling  aim 
of  our  teachers  should  be,  therefore,  to  bring 
their  pedagogical  action  into  harmony  with  what 
is  best  in  the  domestic,  social,  and  religious  life 
of  the  child  ;  for  this  is  the  foundation  on  which 
they  must  build,  and  to  weaken  it  is  to  expose 
the  whole  structure  to  ruin.  Hence  the  teacher's 
attitude  toward  the  child  should  be  that  of 
sympathy  with  him  in  his  love  for  his  parents, 
his  country,  and  his  religion.  His  reason  is 
still  feeble,  and  his  life  is  largely  one  of  feeling; 
and  the  fountain-heads  of  his  purest  and  noblest 
feelings  are  precisely  his  parents,  his  country, 
and  his  religion,  and  to  tamper  with  them  is  to 
poison  the  wells  whence  he  draws  the  water  of 


SCOPE    OF  PUBLIC-SCHOOL   EDUCATION.      1 35 

life.  To  assume  and  hold  this  attitude  with 
sincerity  and  tact  is  difficult ;  it  requires  both 
character  and  culture  ;  it  implies  a  genuine  love 
of  mankind  and  of  human  excellence  ;  reverence 
for  whatever  uplifts,  purifies,  and  strengthens  the 
heart ;  knowledge  of  the  world,  of  literature, 
and  of  history,  united  with  an  earnest  desire  to 
do  whatever  may  be  possible  to  lead  each  pupil 
toward  life  in  its  completeness,  which  is  health 
and  healthful  activity  of  body  and  mind  and 
heart  and  soul. 

As  the  heart  makes  the  home,  the  teacher 
makes  the  school.  What  we  need  above  all 
things,  wherever  the  young  are  gathered  for 
education,  is  not  a  showy  building,  or  costly  ap- 
paratus, or  improved  methods  or  text-books,  but 
a  living,  loving,  illumined  human  being  who  has 
deep  faith  in  the  power  of  education  and  a  real 
desire  to  bring  it  to  bear  upon  those  who  are 
intrusted  to  him.  This  applies  to  the  primary 
school  with  as  much  force  as  to  the  high  school 
and  university.  Those  who  think,  and  they 
arc,  I  imagine,  the  vast  majority,  that  any  one 
who  can  read  and  write,  who  knows  something 
of  arithmetic,  geography,  and  history,  is  compe- 
tent to  educate  young  children,  have  not  even 
the  most  elementary  notions  of  what  education 
is. 

What  the  teacher  is,  not  what  he  utters  and 


136     MEANS  AND  ENDS   OF  EDUCATION 

inculcates,  is  the  important  thing.  The  life  he 
lives,  and  whatever  reveals  that  life  to  his  pupils  ; 
his  unconscious  behavior,  even ;  above  all,  what 
in  his  inmost  soul  he  hopes,  believes,  and  loves, 
have  far  deeper  and  nior?  potent  influence 
than  mere  lessons  can  ever  have.  It  is  precisely 
here  that  we  Americans,  whose  talent  is  pre- 
dominantly practical  and  inventive,  are  apt  to 
go  astray.  We  have  won  such  marvellous  vic- 
tories with  our  practical  sense  and  inventive 
genius  that  we  have  grown  accustomed  to  look 
to  them  for  aid,  whatever  the  nature  of  the 
difficulty  or  problem  may  be.  Machinery  can 
be  made  to  do  much,  and  to  do  well  what  it  does. 
With  its  help  we  move  rapidly  ;  we  bring  the 
ends  of  the  earth  into  instantaneous  communiJ 
cation ;  we  print  the  daily  history  of  the  world 
and  throw  it  before  every  door ;  we  plough  and 
we  sow  and  we  reap ;  we  build  cities,  and  we 
fill  our  houses  with  whatever  conduces  to  com- 
fort or  luxury.  All  this  and  much  more  ma- 
chinery enables  us  to  do.  But  it  cannot  create 
life,  nor  can  it,  in  any  effective  way,  promote 
vital  processes.  Now,  education  is  essentially 
a  vital  process.  It  is  a  furthering  of  life  ;  and 
as  the  living  proceed  from  the  living,  they  can 
rise  into  the  wider  world  of  ideas  and  conduct 
only  by  the  help  of  the  living;  and  as  in  the 
physical  realm  every  animal  begets  after  its  own 


SCOPE   OF  PUBLIC-SCHOOL   EDUCATION.      1 37 

likeness,  so  also  in  the  spiritual  the  teacher  can 
give  but  what  he  has.  If  the  well-spring  of 
truth  and  love  has  run  dry  within  himself,  he 
teaches  in  vain.  His  words  will  no  more  bring 
forth  life  than  desert  winds  will  clothe  arid  sands 
with  verdure.  Much  talking  and  writing  about 
education  have  chiefly  helped  to  obscure  a  mat- 
ter which  is  really  plain.  The  purpose  of  the 
public  school  is  or  should  be  not  to  form  a 
mechanic  or  a  specialist  of  any  kind,  but  to 
form  a  true  man  or  woman.  Hence  the  number 
of  things  we  teach  the  child  is  of  small  moment. 
Those  schools,  in  fact,  in  which  the  greatest 
number  of  things  are  taught  give,  as  a  rule,  the 
least  education.  The  character  of  the  Roman 
people,  which  enabled  them  to  dominate  the 
earth  and  to  give  laws  to  the  world,  was  formed 
before  they  had  schools,  and  when  their  schools 
were  most  flourishing  they  themselves  were  in 
rapid  moral  and  social  dissolution.  We  make 
education  and  religion  too  much  a  social  affair, 
and  too  little  a  personal  affair.  Their  essence 
lies  in  their  power  to  transform  the  individual, 
and  it  is  only  in  transforming  him  that  they 
recreate  the  wider  life  of  the  community.  The 
Founder  of  Christianity  addressed  himself  to 
the  individual,  and  gave  little  heed  to  the  state 
or  other  environment.  He  looked  to  a  purified 
inner  source  of  life  to  create  for  itself  a  worthier 


138      MEANS  AND   ENDS   OE  EDUCATION. 

environment,  and  simply  ignored  devices  for 
working  sudden  and  startling  changes.  They 
who  have  entered  into  the  hidden  meaning  of 
this  secret  and  this  method  turn  in  utter  in- 
credulity from  the  schemes  of  declaimers  and 
agitators. 

The  men  who  fill  the  world,  each  with  his 
plan  for  reforming  and  saving  it,  may  have  their 
uses,  since  the  poet  tells  us  there  are  uses  in 
adversity,  which,  like  the  toad,  ugly  and  ven- 
omous, wears  yet  a  precious  jewel  in  its  head; 
but  to  one  deafened  by  their  discordant  and 
clamorous  voices,  the  good  purpose  they  serve 
seems  to  be  as  mythical  as  the  jewel  in  the 
toad's  head. 

Have  not  those  who  mistake  their  crotchets 
for  Nature's  laws  invaded  our  schools?  Have 
they  not  succeeded  in  forming  a  public  opinion 
and  in  setting  devices  at  work  which  render 
education,  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word,  if  not 
impossible,  difficult?  Literature  is  a  criticism 
of  life,  made  by  those  who  are  in  love  with  life, 
and  have  the  deepest  faith  in  its  possibilities ; 
and  all  criticism  which  is  inspired  by  sympa- 
thy and  faith  and  controlled  by  knowledge  is 
helpful.  Complacent  thoughts  are  rarely  true, 
and  hardly  ever  useful.  It  is  a  prompting  of 
nature  to  turn  from  what  we  have  to  what  we 
lack,  for  thus  only  is  there  hope  of  amendment 
and  progress.     We  are,  to  quote  Emerson, 


SCOPE   OF  PUBLIC-SCHOOL   EDUCATION.      1 39 

"  Built  of  furtherance  and  pursuing, 
Not  of  spent  deeds,  but  of  doing." 

Hence  the  wise  and  the  strong  dwell  not  upon 
their  virtues  and  accomplishments,  but  strive  to 
learn  wherein  they  fail,  for  it  is  in  correcting 
this  they  desire  to  labor.  They  wish  to  know 
the  truth  about  themselves,  are  willing  to  try  to 
see  themselves  as  others  see  them,  that  self- 
knowledge  may  make  self-improvement  possible. 
They  turn  from  flattery,  for  they  understand 
that  flattery  is  insult.  Now,  if  this  is  the  atti- 
tude of  wise  and  strong  men,  how  much  more 
should  it  not  be  that  of  a  wise  and  strong 
people  ?  Whenever  persons  or  things  are  viewed 
as  related  in  some  special  way  to  ourselves,  our 
opinions  of  them  will  hardly  be  free  from  bias. 
When,  for  instance,  I  think  or  speak  of  my 
country,  my  religion,  my  friends,  my  enemies, 
I  find  it  difficult  to  put  away  the  prejudice 
which  my  self-esteem  and  vanity  create,  and 
which,  like  a  haze,  ever  surrounds  me  to  color 
or  obscure  the  pure  light  of  reason.  It  cannot 
do  us  harm  to  have  our  defects  and  shortcom- 
ings pointed  out  to  us ;  but  to  be  told  by  dema- 
gogues and  dcclaimers  that  we  arc  the  greatest, 
the  most  enlightened,  the  most  virtuous  people 
which  exists  or  has  existed,  can  surely  do  us  no 
good.  If  it  is  true,  we  should  not  dwell  upon 
it,  for  this  will  but  distract  us  from  striving  for 


140      MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

the  things  in  which  we  are  deficient ;  and  if  it 
is  false,  it  can  only  mislead  us  and  nourish  a 
foolish  conceit.  It  is  the  orator's  misfortune 
to  be  compelled  to  think  of  his  audience  rather 
than  of  truth.  It  is  his  business  to  please,  per- 
suade, and  convince ;  and  men  are  pleased  with 
flattering  lies,  persuaded  and  convinced  by  ap- 
peals to  passion  and  interest.  Happier  is  the 
writer,  who  need  not  think  of  a  reader,  but  finds 
his  reward  in  the  truth  he  expresses. 

It  is  not  possible  for  an  enlightened  mind 
not  to  take  profound  interest  in  our  great  sys- 
tem of  public  education.  To  do  this  he  need 
not  think  it  the  best  system.  He  may  deem 
it  defective  in  important  requisites.  He  may 
hold,  as  I  hold,  that  the  system  is  of  minor 
importance,  the  kind  of  teacher  being  all  im- 
portant. But  if  he  loves  his  country,  if  he 
loves  human  excellence,  if  he  has  faith  in  man's 
capacity  for  growth,  he  cannot  but  turn  his 
thoughts,  with  abiding  attention  and  sympathy, 
to  the  generous  and  determined  efforts  of  a 
powerful  and  vigorous  people  to  educate  them- 
selves. Were  our  public-school  system  nothing 
more  than  the  nation's  profession  of  faith  in  the 
transforming  power  of  education,  it  would  be  an 
omen  of  good  and  a  ground  for  hope;  and  one 
cannot  do  more  useful  work  than  to  help  to 
form   a   public  opinion  which   will    accept  with 


SCOPE    OF  PUBLIC-SCHOOL   EDUCATION.      141 

thankfulness  the  free  play  of  all  sincere  minds 
about  this  great  question,  and  which  will  cause 
the  genuine  lovers  of  our  country  to  turn  in 
contempt  from  the  clamors  politicians  and  bigots 
are  apt  to  raise  when  an  honest  man  utters 
honest  thought  on  this  all -important  subject. 

I  am  willing  to  assume  and  to  accept  as  a 
fact  that  our  theological  differences  make  it 
impossible  to  introduce  the  teaching  of  any  reli- 
gious creed  into  the  public  school.  I  take  the 
system  as  it  is,  —  that  is,  as  a  system  of  secular 
education,  —  and  I  address  myself  more  directly 
to  the  question  proposed :  What  is  or  should 
be  its  scope? 

The  fact  that  religious  instruction  is  excluded 
makes  it  all  the  more  necessary  that  humanizing 
and  ethical  aims  should  be  kept  constantly  in 
view.  Whoever  teaches  in  a  public  school 
should  be  profoundly  convinced  that  man  is 
more  than  an  animal  which  may  be  taught 
cunning  and  quickness.  A  weed  in  blossom 
may  have  a  certain  beauty,  but  it  will  bear  no 
fruit;  and  so  the  boy  or  youth  one  often  meets, 
with  his  irreverent  smartness,  his  precocious 
pseudo-knowledge  of  a  hundred  things,  may 
excite  a  kind  of  interest,  but  he  gives  little 
promise  of  a  noble  future.  The  flower  of  his 
life  is  the  blossom  of  the  weed,  which  in  its 
decay  will    poison  the  air,  or,  at  the  best,  serve 


142     MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

but  to  fertilize  the  soil.  If  we  are  to  work  to 
good  purpose  we  must  take  our  stand,  with  the 
great  thinkers  and  educators,  on  the  broad  field 
of  man's  nature,  and  act  in  the  light  of  the  only 
true  ideal  of  education,  —  that  its  end  is  wisdom, 
virtue,  knowledge,  power,  reverence,  faith,  health, 
behavior,  hope,  and  love ;  in  a  word,  whatever 
powers  and  capacities  make  for  intelligence,  for 
conduct,  for  character,  for  completeness  of  life. 
Not  for  a  moment  should  we  permit  ourselves 
to  be  deluded  by  the  thought  that  because  the 
teaching  of  religious  creeds  is  excluded,  there- 
fore we  may  make  no  appeal  to  the  fountain- 
heads  which  sleep  within  every  breast,  the 
welling  of  whose  waters  alone  has  power  to 
make  us  human.  If  we  are  forbidden  to  turn 
the  current  into  this  or  that  channel,  we  are  not 
forbidden  to  recognize  the  universal  truth  that 
man  lives  by  faith,  hope,  and  love,  by  imagina- 
tion and  desire,  and  that  it  is  precisely  for  this 
reason  that  he  is  educablc.  We  move  irresisti- 
bly in  the  lines  of  our  real  faith  and  desire,  and 
the  educator's  great  purpose  is  to  help  us  to 
believe  in  what  is  high  and  to  desire  what  is 
good.  Since  for  the  irreverent  and  vulgar  spirit 
nothing  is  high  or  good,  reverence,  and  the 
refinement  which  is  the  fruit  of  true  intelligence, 
urge  ceaselessly  their  claims  on  the  teacher's 
attention.     Goethe,  I  suppose,  was  little  enough 


SCOPE   OF  PUBLIC-SCHOOL  EDUCATION.      1 43 

of  a  Christian  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  an 
agnostic  cripple  even,  and  yet  he  held  that  the 
best  thing  in  man  is  the  thrill  of  awe;  and  that 
the  chief  business  of  education  is  to  cultivate 
reverence  for  whatever  is  above,  beneath, 
around,  and  within  us.  This  he  believed  to  be 
the  only  philosophical  and  healthful  attitude  of 
mind  and  heart  towards  the  universe,  seen  and 
unseen.  May  not  the  meanest  flower  that  blows 
bring  thoughts  that  lie  too  deep  for  tears?  Is 
not  reverence  a  part  of  all  the  sweetest  and 
purest  feelings  which  bind  us  to  father  and 
mother,  to  friends  and  home  and  country?  Is 
it  not  the  very  bloom  and  fragrance,  not  only  of 
the  highest  religious  faith,  but  also  of  the  best 
culture?  Let  the  thrill  of  awe  cease  to  vibrate, 
and  you  will  have  a  world  in  which  money  is 
more  than  man,  office  better  than  honesty,  and 
books  like  "  Innocents  Abroad  "  or  "  Peck's  Bad 
Boy  "  more  indicative  of  the  kind  of  man  we  form 
than  are  the  noblest  works  of  genius.  What  is 
the  great  aim  of  the  primary  school,  if  it  is  not 
the  nutrition  of  feeling?  The  child  is  weak  in 
mind,  weak  in  will,  but  he  is  most  impression- 
able. Feeble  in  thought,  he  is  strong  in  capa- 
city to  feel  the  emotions  which  arc  the  sap  of  the 
tree  of  moral  life.  He  responds  quickly  to  the 
appeals  of  love,  tenderness,  and  sympathy.  He 
is  alive  to  whatever  is  noble,  heroic,  and  vener- 


144     MEANS  AND  ENDS   OF  EDUCATION. 

able.  He  desires  the  approbation  of  others, 
especially  of  those  whom  he  believes  to  be  true 
and  high  and  pure.  Me  has  unquestioning  faith, 
not  only  in  God  but  in  great  men,  who,  for  him, 
indeed,  are  earthly  gods.  Is  not  his  father  a 
divine  man,  whose  mere  word  drives  away  all 
fear  and  fills  him  with  confidence?  The  touch 
of  his  mother's  hand  stills  his  pain ;  if  he  is 
frightened,  her  voice  is  enough  to  soothe  him 
to  sleep.  To  imagine  that  we  are  educating 
this  being  of  infinite  sensibility  and  impression- 
ability when  we  do  little  else  than  teach  him  to 
read,  write,  and  cipher,  is  to  cherish  a  delusion. 
It  is  not  his  destiny  to  become  a  reading,  writ- 
ing, and  ciphering  machine,  but  to  become  a 
man  who  believes,  hopes,  and  loves ;  who  holds 
to  sovereign  truth,  and  is  swayed  by  sympathy ; 
who  looks  up  with  reverence  and  awe  to  the 
heavens,  and  hearkens  with  cheerful  obedience 
to  the  call  of  duty;  who  has  habits  of  right 
thinking  and  well  doing  which  have  become  a 
law  unto  him,  a  second  nature.  And  if  it  be 
said  that  we  all  recognize  this  to  be  so,  but  that 
it  is  not  the  business  of  the  school  to  help  to 
form  such  a  man;  that  it  does  its  work  when  it 
sharpens  the  wits,  I  will  answer  with  the  words 
of  William  von  Humboldt:  "  Whatever  we  wish 
to  see  introduced  into  the  life  of  a  nation  must 
first  be  introduced  into  its  schools." 


SCOPE   OF  rUBLIC-SCIIOOL  EDUCATION.      1 45 

Now,  what  we  wish  to  see  introduced  into  the 
life  of  the  nation  is  not  the  power  of  shrewd 
men,  wholly  absorbed  in  the  striving  for  wealth, 
reckless  of  the  means  by  which  it  is  gotten,  and 
who,  whether  they  succeed  or  whether  they  fail, 
look  upon  money  as  the  equivalent  of  the  best 
things  man  knows  or  has;  who  therefore  think 
that  the  highest  purpose  of  government,  as  of 
other  social  forces  and  institutions,  is  to  make 
it  easy  for  all  to  get  abundance  of  gold  and  to 
live  in  sloven  plenty ;  but  what  we  wish  to  see 
introduced  into  the  life  of  the  nation  is  the 
power  of  intelligence  and  virtue,  of  wisdom  and 
conduct.  We  believe,  and  in  fact  know,  that 
humanity,  justice,  truthfulness,  honesty,  honor, 
fidelity,  courage,  integrity,  reverence,  purity, 
and  self-respect  are  higher  and  mightier  than 
anything  mere  sharpened  wits  can  accomplish. 
But  if  these  virtues,  which  constitute  nearly  the 
whole  sum  of  man's  strength  and  worth,  are  to 
be  introduced  into  the  life  of  the  nation,  they 
must  be  introduced  into  the  schools,  into  the 
process  of  education.  We  must  recognize,  not 
in  theory  alone  but  in  practice,  that  the  chief 
end  of  education  is  ethical,  since  conduct  is 
three-fourths  of  human  life.  The  aim  must  be 
to  make  men  true  in  thought  and  word,  pure  in 
desire,  faithful  in  act,  upright  in  deed;  men  who 
understand  that  the  highest  good  does  not  lie 


I46     MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

in  the  possession  of  anything  whatsoever,  but 
that  it  lies  in  power  and  quality  of  being;  for 
whom  what  we  are  and  not  what  we  have  is  the 
guiding  principle ;  who  know  that  the  best 
work  is  not  that  for  which  we  receive  most  pay, 
but  that  which  is  most  favorable  to  life,  physical, 
moral,  intellectual,  and  religious ;  since  man 
does  not  exist  for  work  or  the  Sabbath,  but 
work  and  rest  exist  for  him,  that  he  may  thrive 
and  become  more  human  and  more  divine. 
We  must  cease  to  tell  boys  and  girls  that  educa- 
tion will  enable  them  to  get  hold  of  the  good 
things  of  which  they  believe  the  world  to  be 
full ;  we  must  make  them  realize  rather  that  the 
best  thing  in  the  world  is  a  noble  man  or 
woman,  and  to  be  that  is  the  only  certain  way 
to  a  worthy  and  contented  life.  All  talk  about 
patriotism  which  implies  that  it  is  possible  to 
be  a  patriot  or  a  good  citizen  without  being  a 
true  and  good  man,  is  sophistical  and  hollow. 
How  shall  he  who  cares  not  for  his  better  self 
care  for  his  country? 

We  must  look,  as  educators,  most  closely  to 
those  sides  of  the  national  life  where  there  is  the 
greatest  menace  of  ruin.  It  is  plain  that  our 
besetting  sin,  as  a  people,  is  not  intemperance 
or  unchastity,  but  dishonesty.  From  the  water- 
ing and  manipulating  of  stocks  to  the  adultera- 
tion of  food   and   drink,   from  the   booming  of 


SCOPE   OF  PUBLIC-SCHOOL   EDUCATION.      147 

towns  and  lands  to  the  selling  of  votes  and  the 
buying  of  office,  from  the  halls  of  Congress  to 
the  policeman's  beat,  from  the  capitalist  who 
controls  trusts  and  syndicates  to  the  mechanic 
who  does  inferior  work,  the  taint  of  dishonesty 
is  everywhere.  We  distrust  one  another,  dis- 
trust those  who  manage  public  affairs,  distrust 
our  own  fixed  will  to  suffer  the  worst  that  may 
befall  rather  than  cheat  or  steal  or  lie.  Dis- 
honesty hangs,  like  mephitic  air,  about  our 
newspapers,  our  legislative  assemblies,  the 
municipal  government  of  our  towns  and  cities, 
about  our  churches  even,  since  our  religion 
itself  seems  to  lack  that  highest  kind  of  honesty, 
the  downright  and  thorough  sincerity  which  is 
its  life-breath. 

If  the  teacher  in  the  public  school  may  not 
insist  that  an  honest  man  is  the  noblest  work  of 
God,  he  may  teach  at  least  that  he  who  fails  in 
honesty  fails  in  the  most  essential  quality  of 
manhood,  enters  into  warfare  with  the  forces 
which  have  made  him  what  he  is,  and  which 
secure  him  the  possession  of  what  he  holds 
dearer  than  himself,  since  he  barters  for  it  his 
self-respect;  that  the  dishonest  man  is  an  anar- 
chist and  dissocialist,  one  who  does  what  in  him 
lies  to  destroy  credit,  and  the  sense  of  the 
sacredness  of  property,  obedience  to  law,  and 
belief  in  the  ricrhts  of  man.     If  our  teachers  are 


I48      MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

to  work  in  the  light  of  an  ideal,  if  they  are  to 
have  a  conscious  end  in  view,  as  all  who  strive 
intelligently  must  have,  if  they  are  to  hold  a 
principle  which  will  give  unity  to  their  methods, 
they  must  seek  it  in  the  idea  of  morality,  of  con- 
duct, which  is  three-fourths  of  life. 

I  myself  am  persuaded  that  the  real  and  philo- 
sophical basis  of  morality  is  the  being  of  God, 
a  being  absolute,  infinite,  unimaginable,  in- 
conceivable, of  whom  our  highest  and  nearest 
thought  is  that  he  is  not  only  almighty,  but  all- 
wise  and  all-good  as  well.  But  it  is  possible, 
I  think,  to  cultivate  the  moral  sense  without 
directly  and  expressly  assigning  to  it  this  philo- 
sophical and  religious  basis;  for  goodness  is 
largely  its  own  evidence,  as  virtue  is  its  own 
reward.  It  all  depends  on  the  teacher.  Life 
produces  life,  life  develops  life ;  and  if  the 
teacher  have  within  himself  a  living  sense  of  the 
all-importance  of  conduct,  if  he  thoroughly 
realize  that  what  we  call  knowledge  is  but  a 
small  part  of  man's  life,  his  influence  will  nourish 
the  feelings  by  which  character  is  evolved.  The 
germ  of  a  moral  idea  is  always  an  emotion,  and 
that  which  impels  to  right  action  is  the  emotion 
rather  than  the  idea.  The  teachings  of  the 
heart  remain  forever,  and  they  arc  the  most 
important;  for  what  we  love,  genuinely  believe 
in,  and   desire    decides  what  we  are    and   may 


SCOPE   OF  PUBLIC-SCHOOL   EDUCATION.      1 49 

become.  Hence  the  true  educator,  even  in 
giving  technical  instruction,  strives  not  merely 
to  make  a  workman,  but  to  make  also  a  man, 
whose  being  shall  be  touched  to  finer  issues  by 
spiritual  powers,  who  shall  be  upheld  by  faith 
in  the  worth  and  sacredness  of  life,  and  in  the 
education  by  which  it  is  transformed,  enriched, 
purified,  and  ennobled.  He  understands  that  an 
educated  man,  who,  in  the  common  acceptation 
of  the  phrase,  is  one  who  knows  something,  who 
knows  many  things,  is,  in  truth,  simply  one  who 
has  acquired  habits  of  right  thinking  and  right 
doing.  The  culture  which  we  wish  to  see  pre- 
vail throughout  our  country  is  not  learning  and 
literary  skill ;  it  is  character  and  intellectual 
openness,  —  that  higher  humanity  which  is 
latent  within  us  all ;  which  is  power,  wisdom, 
truth,  goodness,  love,  sympathy,  grace,  and 
beauty;  whose  surpassing  excellence  the  po'or 
may  know  as  well  as  the  rich ;  whose  charm 
the  multitude  may  feel  as  well  as  the  chosen 
few. 

"  He  who  speaks  of  the  people,"  says  Guic- 
ciardini,  "  speaks,  in  sooth,  of  a  foolish  animal, 
a  prey  to  a  thousand  errors,  a  thousand  con- 
fusions, without  taste,  without  affection,  without 
firmness."  The  scope  of  our  public-school  edu- 
cation is  to  make  common-places  of  this  kind, 
by  which  all  literature   is  pervaded,  so  false  as 


150      MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

to  be  absurd;  and  when  this  end  shall  have 
been  attained,  Democracy  will  have  won  its 
noblest  victory. 

How  shall  we  find  the  secret  from  which  hope 
of  such  success  will  spring?  By  so  forming 
and  directing  the  power  of  public  opinion,  of 
national  approval,  and  of  money,  as  to  make  the 
best  men  and  women  willing  and  ready  to  enter 
the  teacher's  profession.  The  kind  of  man 
who  educates  is  the  test  of  the  kind  of  educa- 
tion given,  and  there  is  properly  no  other  test. 
When  we  Americans  shall  have  learned  to 
believe  with  all  our  hearts  and  with  all  the 
strength  of  irresistible  conviction  that  a  true 
educator  is  a  more  important,  in  every  way  a 
more  useful,  sort  of  man  than  a  great  railway 
king,  or  pork  butcher,  or  captain  of  industry,  or 
grain  buyer,  or  stock  manipulator,  we  shall  have 
begun  to  make  ourselves  capable  of  perceiving 
the  real  scope  of  public-school  education. 


RELIGIOUS  ELEMENT  IN  EDUCA  TION     I  5  I 


CHAPTER   VI. 

THE   RELIGIOUS   ELEMENT   IN   EDUCATION. 

THE  theory  of  development,  which  is  now 
widely  received  and  applied  to  all  things, 
from  star  dust  to  the  latest  fashion,  is  at  once  a 
sign  and  a  cause  of  the  almost  unlimited  con- 
fidence which  we  put  in  the  remedial  and  trans- 
forming power  of  education.  We  no  longer 
think  of  God  as  standing  aloof  from  nature  and 
the  course  of  history.  He  it  is  who  works  in 
the  play  of  atoms  and  in  the  throbbings  of  the 
human  heart;  and  as  we  perceive  his  action  in 
the  evolution  both  of  matter  and  of  mind,  we 
know  and  feel  that,  when  with  conscious  pur- 
pose we  strive  to  call  forth  and  make  living  the 
latent  powers  of  man's  being,  we  are  working 
with  him  in  the  direction  in  which  he  impels  the 
universe.  Education,  therefore,  we  look  upon 
as  necessary,  not  merely  because  it  is  indispen- 
sable to  any  high  and  human  kind  of  life,  but 
also  because  God  has  made  development  the 
law  both  of  conscious  and  unconscious  nature. 
He  is  in  act  all  that  the  finite  may  become,  and 


152      MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

the  effort  to  grow  in  strength,  knowledge,  and 
virtue  springs  from  a  divine  impulse. 

Although  we  know  that  the  earth  is  not  the 
centre  of  the  universe,  that  it  is  but  a  minor  sat- 
ellite, a  globule  lost  in  space,  our  deepest  thought 
still  finds  that  the  end  of  nature  is  the  produc- 
tion of  rational  beings,  of  man ;  for  the  final 
reason  for  which  all  things  exist  is  that  the  in- 
finite good  may  be  communicated ;  and  since 
the  highest  good  is  truth  and  holiness,  it  can  be 
communicated  only  to  beings  who  think  and 
love.  Hence  all  things  are  man's,  and  he  exists 
that  he  may  make  himself  like  God ;  in  other 
words,  that  he  may  educate  himself;  for  the 
end  of  education  is  to  fit  him  for  completeness 
of  life,  to  train  all  his  faculties,  to  call  all  his 
endowments  into  play,  to  make  him  symmetrical 
and  whole  in  body  and  soul.  This,  of  course, 
is  the  ideal,  and  consequently  the  unattainable; 
but  in  the  light  of  ideals  alone  do  we  see  rightly 
and  judge  truly;  and  to  take  a  lower  view  of 
the  aim  and  end  of  education  is  to  take  a  partial 
view.  To  hold  that  God  is,  and  that  man  truly 
lives  only  in  so  far  as  he  is  made  partaker  of 
the  divine  life,  is,  by  implication,  to  hold  that 
his  education  should  be  primarily  and  essen- 
tially religious.  Our  opinions  and  beliefs,  how- 
ever, are  never  the  result  of  purely  rational 
processes,    and    hence    a    mere    syllogism     has 


RELIGIO US  ELEMENT  IN  ED UCA  TION     1 5  3 

small  persuasive  force,  or  even  no  influence  at 
all,  upon  our  way  of  looking  at  things,  01  the 
motives  which  determine  action. 

As  it  is  useless  to  argue  against  the  nature  of 
things,  so  we  generally  plead  in  vain  when  our 
world-view  is  other  than  that  of  those  whom  we 
seek  to  convince;  for  those  who  observe  from 
different  points  either  do  not  see  the  same 
objects  or  do  not  see  them  in  the  same  light. 
Life  is  complex,  and  the  springs  of  thought  and 
action  are  controlled  in  mysterious  ways  by 
forces  and  impulses  which  we  neither  clearly 
understand  nor  accurately  measure.  What  is 
called  the  spirit  of  the  age,  the  spirit  which, 
as  the  Poet  says,  sits  at  the  roaring  loom  of 
time  and  weaves  for  God  the  garment  whereby 
He  is  made  visible  to  us,  exercises  a  potent 
influence  upon  all  our  thinking  and  doing.  We 
live  in  an  era  of  progress,  and  progress  means 
differentiation  of  structure  and  specialization  of 
function.  The  more  perfect  the  organism,  the 
more  are  its  separate  functions  assigned  to 
separate  parts.  As  social  aggregates  develop, 
a  similar  differentiation  takes  place.  Offices 
which  were  in  the  hands  of  one  are  distributed 
among  several.  Agencies  are  evolved  by  which 
processes  of  production,  distribution,  and  ex- 
change are  carried  on.  Trades  and  professions 
are    called    into    existence.     As   enlightenment 


154     MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

and  skill  increase,  men  become  more  difficult  to 
please.  They  demand  the  best  work,  and  the 
best  work  can  be  done,  as  a  rule,  only  by  special- 
ists. Specialization  thus  becomes  a  character- 
istic of  civilization.  The  patriarch  is  both  king 
and  priest.  In  Greece  and  Rome,  religion  is  a 
function  of  the  State.  In  the  Middle  Age,  the 
Church  and  the  State  coalesce,  and  form  such 
an  intimate  union  that  the  special  domain  of 
either  is  invaded  by  both.  But  differentiation 
finally  takes  place,  and  we  all  learn  to  distin- 
guish between  the  things  of  Caesar  and  the 
things  of  God.  This  separation  has  far-reach- 
ing results.  In  asserting  its  independence,  the 
State  was  driven  to  use  argument  as  well  as 
force.  Thus  learning,  which  in  the  confusion 
that  succeeded  the  incursions  of  the  Barbarians 
was  cultivated  almost  exclusively  by  ecclesias- 
tics, grew  to  be  of  interest  and  importance  to 
laymen.  They  began  to  study,  and  the  subjects 
which  most  engaged  their  thoughts  were  not 
religious,  in  the  accepted  sense  of  the  word. 
The  Protestant  rebellion  is  but  a  phase  of  this 
revolution.  It  began  with  the  introduction  of 
the  literature  of  Greece  into  Western  Europe. 
The  spirit  of  inquiry  and  mental  curiosity  was 
thereby  awakened  in  wider  circles;  enthusiasm 
for  the  truth  and  beauty  to  which  Greek  genius 
has    given    the    most    perfect    expression,    was 


RELIGIO  US  ELEMENT  IN  ED  UCA  TION     I  5  5 

aroused ;  and  interest  in  intellectual  and  artistic 
culture  was  called  forth.  New  ideals  were  up- 
held to  fresh  and  wondering  minds.  The  conta- 
gion spread,  and  the  thirst  for  knowledge  was 
carried  to  ever-widening  spheres.  It  thus  came 
to  pass  that  the  cleric  and  the  scholar  ceased  to 
be  identical.  The  boundaries  of  knowledge 
were  enlarged  when  the  inductive  method  was 
applied  to  the  study  of  nature,  and  it  soon 
became  impossible  for  one  man  to  pretend  to  a 
mastery  of  all  science.  And  so  the  principle  of 
the  division  of  labor  was  introduced  into  things 
of  the  intellect.  Of  old,  the  prophet  or  the 
philosopher  was  supposed  to  possess  all  wisdom  ; 
but  now  it  had  become  plain  that  proficiency 
could  be  hoped  for  only  by  lifelong  devotion  to 
some  special  branch  of  knowledge.  This  led  to 
other  developments.  The  business  of  teaching, 
which  had  been  almost  exclusively  in  the  hands 
of  ecclesiastics,  was  now  necessarily  taken  up 
by  laymen  also.  As  feudalism  fell  to  decay, 
and  the  assertion  of  popular  rights  began  to 
point  to  the  advent  of  democracy,  the  move- 
ment in  opposition  to  privilege  logically  led  to 
the  claim  that  learning  should  no  longer  be  held 
to  be  the  appanage  of  special  classes,  but  that 
the  gates  of  the  temple  of  knowledge  should  be 
thrown  open  to  the  whole  people.  To  make 
education    universal,    the    most    ready    and    the 


156     MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

simplest  means  was  to  levy  a  school  tax ;  and  as 
this  could  be  done  only  by  the  State,  the  State 
established  systems  of  education  and  assumed 
the  office  of  teacher.  The  result  of  all  this  has 
been  that  the  school,  which  throughout  Chris- 
tendom is  the  creation  of  the  church,  has  in 
most  countries  very  largely  passed  into  the  con- 
trol of  the  civil  government. 

This  transference  of  control  need  not,  how- 
ever, involve  the  exclusion  of  religious  influence 
and  instruction;  though  once  the  State  has 
gained  the  ascendency,  the  natural  tendency  is 
to  take  a  partial  and  secular  view  of  the  whole 
question  of  education,  and  to  limit  the  functions 
of  the  school  to  the  training  of  the  mental 
faculties.  And,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  this  ten- 
dency is  found  in  men  of  widely  differing  and 
even  conflicting  opinions  and  convictions  con- 
cerning religion  itself.  It  is  most  pronounced, 
however,  in  the  educational  theories  and  systems 
of  positivists  and  agnostics.  As  they  hold  that 
there  is  no  God,  or  that  we  cannot  know  that 
there  is  a  God,  they  necessarily  conclude  that  it 
is  absurd  to  attempt  to  teach  children  anything 
about  God.  This  view  is  forcibly  expressed 
by  Issaurat,  a  French  writer  on  education,  in 
a  recently  published  volume,  which  he  calls 
"  The  Evolution  and  History  of  Pedagogy." 

"  All  religion,"  he  affirms,  in  the  concluding 


RELIGIOUS  ELEMENT  IN  EDUCA  TION.     I  5 7 

chapter  of  his  book,  "  impedes,  thwarts,  mis- 
directs, and  troubles  the  natural  education  of 
man,  the  normal  and  harmonious  development 
of  his  physical,  moral,  and  intellectual  faculties ; 
and  since  educational  reform  is  not  possible 
without  reformation  in  the  government,  it  is  the 
duty  of  the  State,  not  merely  to  separate  itself 
from  the  church,  but  to  suppress  the  church 
and  to  found  the  science  of  education  upon 
biological  philosophy,  upon  transformism  —  let 
us  say  the  word,  upon  materialism."  This  view 
is  manifestly  the  inevitable  result  of  Issaurat's 
general  system  of  thought  and  belief.  In  his 
opinion,  matter  alone  really  exists,  and  what  is 
called  spirit  is  but  a  phase  of  its  evolution. 
The  world  of  spirit,  therefore,  is  illusory;  and 
to  bring  up  the  young  to  believe  that  it  is  the 
infinite,  essential  reality,  is  to  teach  them  what 
is  false,  and  to  give  a  wrong  direction  to  the 
whole  course  of  life.  For  practical  purposes  this 
is  the  view  not  only  of  materialists  and  positi- 
vists,  but  of  agnostics  as  well,  who,  though  they 
do  not  deny  the  existence  of  spirit,  assert  that 
only  the  phenomenal  can  be  known,  or  become 
the  subject-matter  of  teaching.  They  all  agree 
in  holding  that  the  theological  world-view  was 
the  primitive  one,  which,  yielding  to.  the  meta- 
physical, has  been  finally  superseded  by  the 
scientific,  the  sole  basis  of  a  rational  philosophy. 


158     MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

The  ideas  of  God,  substance,  cause,  and  end, 
are  metaphysical  ideas,  which,  if  we  wish  to 
understand  nature,  must  be  ignored ;  for  the 
study  of  nature  is  the  study  simply  of  facts  and 
their  relations  with  one  another.  There  is,  so 
they  think,  no  such  thing  as  substance,  any 
more  than  there  is  such  a  thing  as  a  principle 
of  gravity,  heat,  light,  electricity,  or  chemical 
affinity.  The  vital  principle  too,  which  has 
played  so  great  a  part  in  physiological  inquiries, 
must  be  given  up ;  and  therefore,  while  nearly 
all  the  philosophers,  from  Kant  to  our  own  day, 
have  made  psychology  the  foundation  of  the 
science  of  education,  there  is  at  present  a 
marked  tendency  to  have  it  rest  solely  on 
biology.  Whether  and  to  what  extent  these 
theories  are  true  or  false,  is  beyond  the  purpose 
of  this  argument.  True  or  false,  they  fairly 
describe  the  views  of  a  large  number  of  thinkers 
in  our  day,  and  enable  us  to  form  a  concep- 
tion of  their  philosophy  of  education.  "  Why 
trouble  ourselves,"  asks  Professor  Huxley, 
"  about  matters  of  which,  however  important 
they  may  be,  we  do  know  nothing  and  can 
know  nothing?  With  a  view  to  our  duty  in 
this  Life,  it  is  necessary  to  be  possessed  of  only 
two  beliefs:  The  first,  that  the  order  of  nature 
is  ascertainable  by  our  faculties  to  an  extent 
that  is   practically  unlimited ;   the  second,  that 


RELIGIO  US  EL  EMENT  IN  ED  UCA  TION.     I  5  9 

our  volition  counts  for  something  as  a  condition 
of  the  course  of  events."  Our  volition  counts 
as  a  condition,  but  it  is  after  all  only  a  part  of 
the  course  of  events,  and,  consequently,  the  only 
belief  it  is  necessary  to  hold  is,  that  the  course 
of  events  is  ascertainable  by  our  faculties  to  a 
practically  unlimited  extent.  Such  is  the  brief 
creed  of  materialists  and  agnostics.  The  order 
of  nature  is  the  only  known  god,  and  man's  sole 
end  and  duty  is  to  make  himself  acquainted 
with  it,  that  through  obedience  he  may  attain 
the  highest  perfection  and  happiness  of  which 
he  is  capable.  This  is  the  one  true  religion, 
and  an  enlightened  people  should  forbid  that 
any  other  be  taught  in  their  schools.  Here  we 
have  an  intelligible  and  well-defined  position, 
and  the  one  which,  from  the  point  of  view  of 
such  men  as  Issaurat  and  Huxley,  is  alone 
tenable. 

Every  one  now,  who  thinks  at  all,  has  some 
theory  of  the  world,  and  hence  the  shades  of 
unbelief  as  of  belief  are  many;  and  since  views 
of  education  are  part  of  a  more  general  system 
of  philosophy,  it  is  inevitable  that  those  who 
disagree  upon  the  fundamental  questions  of 
thought,  disagree  also  in  their  notions  as  to 
what  is  the  school's  proper  office. 

Materialists,  pantheists,  positivists,  secularists, 
and   pessimists   unite   in   denying    that   there    is 


l6o     MEANS  AND  ENDS   OF  EDUCATION. 

a  God  above  and  distinct  from  nature,  while 
agnostics  and  cosmists  affirm  that  such  a  being, 
if  he  exist,  must  necessarily  lie  outside  the 
domain  of  knowledge.  Positive  religious  doc- 
trines, therefore,  are  superstition.  As  these 
views  are  reflected  in  a  more  or  less  vague  way 
in  the  writings  of  the  multitude  of  those  who 
make  the  current  literature,  public  opinion  be- 
comes averse  to  religious  dogmas.  A  large 
number  of  cultivated  minds  turn  from  all 
definite  systems,  whether  of  thought  or  belief. 
Everything  may  be  tolerated,  if  only  the  spirit 
of  dogmatism  is  away.  They  recognize  how 
great  a  thing  religion  is,  how  profoundly  it 
touches  life,  how  powerfully  it  shapes  conduct. 
Without  it,  civilization  is  hard  and  mechanical, 
art  is  formal  and  feeble,  and  man  himself  but  a 
shrewd  animal.  But,  from  their  points  of  view, 
doctrines  about  God  and  Christ  and  the  church 
have  nothing  to  do  with  religion.  To  think  of 
God  as  substance  is  to  convert  him  into  nature, 
to  think  of  him  as  a  person  is  to  limit  him. 
The  only  absolute  is  the  moral  order  of  the 
world.  The  religion  of  Christ  is  not  a  theory  or 
a  system  of  thought;  it  is  a  view  of  life,  and  its 
essence  is  found  in  belief  in  the  reality  of  moral 
ideas.  The  supernatural  may  fall  away,  —  even 
the  notion  of  a  Providence  which  rules  the 
world  in  the  interest  of  the  good  may  be  given 


RE  LI  G 10  US  ELEMENT  IN  ED  UCA  TION.     1 6 1 

up,  —  and  we  still  have  the  method  and  the 
secret  of  Jesus,  all  that  is  of  value  in  his  life  and 
teaching.  All  theology  is  an  illusion,  all  creeds 
are  a  mistake.  Religion  rests  upon  the  moral 
power,  which  is  not  a  conclusion  drawn  from 
facts,  but  the  fact  itself,  —  the  primal  and  essen- 
tial fact  in  human  life.  Religion  is  simply 
morality  suffused  by  the  glow  and  warmth  of  a 
devout  and  reverent  temper,  and  to  teach  doc- 
trines about  God  and  the  church  will  not  make 
men  religious. 

It  is  obvious  to  object  that  morality  supposes 
belief  in  a  Personal  God  and  in  the  soul  of  man, 
as  law  implies  a  law-giver.  This  objection  is 
meaningless,  not  only  for  the  thinkers  whom  I 
have  mentioned,  but  for  others  who  find  little 
interest  in  the  literary  and  religious  ideas  of 
such  men  as  Matthew  Arnold.  Morality,  they 
claim,  is  independent,  not  only  of  metaphysics, 
but  of  religion  as  well.  It  is  a  science,  as  yet, 
indeed,  imperfectly  developed,  but  a  science 
nevertheless,  just  as  chemistry  or  physiology  is 
a  science.  Human  acts  are  controlled,  not  by 
a  higher  will  or  man's  freedom  of  choice,  but 
by  physical  laws.  The  peculiarity  of  this  view 
does  not  lie  in  the  contention  that  ethics  is  a 
science,  but  in  the  claim  that  it  is  a  science 
altogether  independent  of  metaphysical  ami 
religious  dogmas.  All  forces,  it  is  asserted, 
ii 


1 62      MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

physical,  mental,  and  moral,  are  identical ;  and 
morality,  like  bodily  vigor,  is  a  product  of 
organism.  It  is,  in  fact,  but  an  elaboration  of 
the  two  radical  instincts  of  nutrition  and  propa- 
gation, from  which  springs  the  twofold  move- 
ment of  conscious  life,  the  egoistic  and  the 
altruistic.  This  theory  is  accepted  alike  in  the 
German  school  of  materialism,  in  the  French 
school  of  positivism,  and  in  the  English  school 
of  utilitarianism.  What  the  influence  of  modern 
empiricism  upon  American  opinion  may  be,  it 
is  difficult  to  determine.  Americans  certainly 
are  a  practical  people,  but  they  arc  not  devoid 
of  interest  in  speculative  views.  More  than  any 
other  people,  possibly,  they  have  faith  in  the 
marvellous  things  which  science  is  destined  to 
accomplish,  and  they  willingly  listen  to  men  of 
science,  even  when  they  quit  the  regions  of  fact 
for  those  of  opinion.  Thus  the  various  theories, 
to  which  the  progress  of  natural  knowledge  has 
given  rise,  are  received  by  them,  if  not  with 
implicit  trust,  with  a  kind  of  feeling,  at  least, 
that  they  may  be  true. 

There  is  even  a  disposition  to  treat  doubts  of 
the  truth  of  Christianity  as  a  mark  of  intellec- 
tual vigor,  and  sometimes  as  a  sign  of  religious 
sincerity.  Preoccupied  with  material  interests, 
but  yet  finding  time  to  read  the  thoughts  of 
many  minds  and  to  hear  the  discussion  of  an- 


RELIGIO  US  EL  EMENT  IN  ED  UCA  TIOAr.     1 0  3 

tagonistic  opinions  and  systems,  they  find  it 
difficult  to  trust  with  entire  confidence  to  what 
they  know  or  believe.  It  all  seems  to  be  rela- 
tive, and  another  generation  may  see  everything 
in  a  different  light.  Problems  take  the  place  of 
principles,  religious  convictions  are  feeble,  the 
grasp  of  Christian  truth  is  relaxed,  and  the 
result  is  a  certain  moral  hesitancy  and  infirmity. 
They  are  not  hostile  to  the  churches,  but  they 
are  more  or  less  indifferent  to  their  doctrines. 
As  each  sect  has  its  peculiar  creed,  the  dogmatic 
position  of  the  church  is  thought  to  be  of  little 
moment.  The  important  thing  is  to  promote 
intelligence  and  virtue.  The  distinctively  sec- 
tarian view  they  look  upon  as  narrow  and  false, 
and  the  good  which  ecclesiastical  organizations 
do  is  done  in  spite  of  their  characteristic  doctrines. 
The  note  of  sectarianism  is  to  them  what  the 
note  of  provincialism  is  to  a  man  of  culture,  or 
lack  of  breeding  to  a  gentleman.  The  moral 
fervor,  which  sectarians  more  than  others  feel, 
is,  they  freely  grant,  a  power  for  good.  It  has 
a  wholesome  influence  upon  character,  and  is  a 
support  of  the  virtues  which  make  free  institu- 
tions possible,  and  which  alone  can  make  them 
permanent.  But  it  has  no  necessary  connection 
with  theological  doctrines,  since  it  is  found  in 
earnest  believers,  whatever  their  creed.  It  is 
the  child  of  enthusiastic  faith,  and  is  nourished 


1 64      MEANS  A. YD   EiVDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

and  kept  living  by  worship,  not  by  dogmatic 
asseverations.  As  the  power  of  the  churches 
does  not  lie  in  their  creeds,  to  make  these  creeds 
a  school  lesson  cannot  be  desirable,  especially 
when  we  reflect  that  the  method  of  religion 
and  the  method  of  science  are  at  variance. 

Such,  I  imagine,  are  the  views  of  large  num- 
bers of  Americans,  who  are  not  members  of  any 
church,  but  whose  influence  is  strongly  felt  in 
political  and  commercial  as  well  as  in  social 
and  professional  life.  And  numbers  of  zealous 
Protestants  are  in  substantial  agreement  with 
them,  since  they  hold  that  faith  is  an  emotional 
rather  than  an  intellectual  state  of  mind,  and 
that  religion  is  not  so  much  a  way  of  thinking 
as  a  way  of  feeling  and  acting.  They  assume, 
of  course,  as  the  prerequisites  of  religious  be- 
lief, the  dogmas  of  the  existence  of  a  personal 
God  and  of  an  immortal  human  soul ;  but,  for 
the  rest,  they  lay  stress  upon  conduct  and 
piety,  not  upon  orthodox  faith.  A  church 
must  have  a  creed,  as  a  party  must  have  a  plat- 
form ;  but  unhesitating  confidence  in  the  truth 
of  the  doctrines  which  it  thus  formulates  is 
not  indispensable.  American  churches  tend  to 
ignore  creeds.  This  is  due,  in  a  measure,  to  the 
growing  desire  to  form  a  union  among  the  several 
sects;  but  it  is  none  the  less  a  sign  of  waning 
belief  in  dogmatic  religion.     Hence  the  increas- 


RELIGIO  US  ELEMENT  IN  ED  UCA  TION.     1 6  5 

ing  emphasis  which  preaching  lays  upon  the 
moral,  aesthetic,  and  emotional  aspects  of  the 
religious  life.  Hence,  too,  the  assumption  that 
the  soul  of  the  church  may  live,  though  the 
body  be  dead. 

But,  apart  from  all  theories  and  systems  of 
belief  and  thought,  public  opinion  in  America 
sets  strongly  against  the  denominational  school. 

The  question  of  education  is  considered  from 
a  practical  rather  than  from  a  theoretical  point 
of  view,  and  public  sentiment  on  the  subject 
may  be  embodied  in  the  following  words  :  The 
civilized  world  now  recognizes  the  necessity  of 
popular  education.  In  a  government  of  the 
people,  such  as  this  is,  intelligence  should  be 
universal.  In  such  a  government,  to  be  igno- 
rant is  not  merely  to  be  weak,  it  is  also  to  be 
dangerous  to  the  common  welfare;  for  the 
ignorant  are  not  only  the  victims  of  circum- 
stances, they  are  the  instruments  which  unscru- 
pulous and  designing  men  make  use  of,  to  taint 
the  source  of  political  authority  and  to  thwart 
the  will  of  the  people.  To  protect  itself,  the 
State  is  forced  to  establish  schools  and  to  see 
that  all  acquire  at  least  the  rudiments  of  letters. 
This  is  so  plain  a  case  that  argument  becomes 
ridiculous.  They  who  doubt  the  good  of 
knowledge  are  not  to  be  reasoned  with,  and  in 
America  not  to  see  that   it  is  necessary,  is  to 


1 66      MEANS  AND  ENDS   OF  EDUCATION 

know  nothing  of  our  political,  commercial,  and 
social  life.  But  the  American  State  can  give 
only  a  secular  education,  for  it  is  separate  from 
the  church,  and  its  citizens  profess  such  various 
and  even  conflicting  beliefs,  that  in  establishing 
a  school  system,  it  is  compelled  to  eliminate  the 
question  of  religion.  Church  and  State  are 
separate  institutions,  and  their  functions  are 
different  and  distinct.  The  church  seeks  to 
turn  men  from  sin,  that  they  may  become  pleas- 
ing to  God  and  save  their  souls  ;  the  State  takes 
no  cognizance  of  sin,  but  strives  to  prevent 
crime,  and  to  secure  to  all  its  citizens  the  enjoy- 
ment of  life,  liberty,  and  property.  Americans 
are  a  Christian  people.  Religious  zeal  impelled 
their  ancestors  to  the  New  World,  and  when 
schools  were  first  established  here,  they  were 
established  by  the  churches,  and  religious  in- 
struction formed  an  important  part  of  the 
education  they  gave.  This  was  natural,  and  it 
was  desirable  even,  in  primitive  times,  when 
each  colony  had  its  own  creed  and  worship, 
when  society  was  simple,  and  the  State  as  yet 
imperfectly  organized.  Here,  as  in  the  Old 
World,  the  school  was  the  daughter  of  the 
church,  and  she  has  doubtless  rendered  invalu- 
able service  to  civilization,  by  fostering  a  love 
for  knowledge  among  barbarous  races  and 
in    struggling    communities.      But    the    task    of 


RELIGIOUS  ELEMENT  IN  EDUCATION.     1 67 

maintaining  a  school  system  such  as  the  re- 
quirements of  a  great  and  progressive  nation 
demands,  is  beyond  her  strength.  This  is  so, 
at  least,  when  the  church  is  split  into  jealous 
and  warring  sects. 

To  introduce  the  spirit  of  sectarianism  into 
the  class-room  would  destroy  the  harmony  and 
good-will  among  citizens,  which  it  is  one  of 
the  aims  of  the  common  school  to  cherish. 
There  is,  besides,  no  reason  why  this  should  be 
done,  since  the  family  and  the  church  give  all 
the  religious  instruction  which  children  are 
capable  of  receiving. 

This,  it  seems  to  me,  is  a  fair  presentation  of 
the  views  and  ideas  which  go  to  the  making 
of  current  American  opinion  on  the  question 
of  religious  instruction  in  State  schools ;  and 
current  opinion,  when  the  subject-matter  is  not 
susceptible  of  physical  demonstration,  cannot 
be  turned  suddenly  in  an  opposite  direction. 
When  men  have  grown  accustomed  to  look  at 
things  in  a  certain  way,  they  have  acquired  a 
mental  habit,  which  no  mere  argument,  how- 
ever cogent  or  eloquent,  is  able  to  overcome. 
To  what  extent  this  view  of  the  school  question 
prevails  is  readily  perceived  by  whoever  recalls 
to  mind  that  not  one  of  the  States  of  the  Union 
has  attempted  to  introduce  the  denominational 
system  of  education,  while  all  the  political  parties 


1 68      MEANS  AND   ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

have  bound  themselves  to  uphold  the  present 
purely  secular  system.  The  opinion  that  the 
prosperity  of  the  nation  depends  upon  the  intel- 
ligence and  activity  of  the  people,  and  to  no 
appreciable  extent  upon  the  influence  of  ecclesi- 
astical organizations,  has  so  far  prevailed,  that 
the  general  feeling  has  come  to  be  that  the 
State  has  no  direct  interest  in  the  church,  which 
is  the  concern  merely  of  individuals.  The  reli- 
gious denominations  themselves  have  helped  to 
inspire  this  sentiment  by  their  jealousies  and 
rivalries.  The  smaller  sects  feel  that  State  aid 
for  denominational  schools  would  accrue  to  the 
benefit  chiefly  of  the  larger;  and  the  others  are 
willing  to  forego  favors  which  they  could  not 
receive  without  permitting  the  Catholic  Church 
to  participate  also  in  the  bounty  of  the  govern- 
ment. 

The  Catholic  view  of  the  school  question  is 
as  clearly  defined  as  it  is  well  known.  It  rests 
upon  the  general  ground  that  man  is  created  for 
a  supernatural  end,  and  that  the  church  is  the 
divinely  appointed  agency  to  help  him  to  attain 
his  supreme  destiny.  If  education  is  a  training 
for  completeness  of  life,  its  primary  element  is 
the  religious,  for  complete  life  is  life  in  God. 
Hence  we  may  not  assume  an  attitude  toward 
the  child,  whether  in  the  home,  in  the  church,  or 
in  the  school,  which  might  imply  that  life  apart 


RELIGIOUS  ELEMENT  IN  EDUCATION.     1 69 

from  God  could  be  anything  else  than  broken 
and  fragmentary.  A  complete  man  is  not  one 
whose  mind  only  is  active  and  enlightened ;  but 
he  is  a  complete  man  who  is  alive  in  all  his 
faculties.  The  truly  human  is  found  not  in 
knowledge  alone,  but  also  in  faith,  in  hope,  in 
love,  in  pure-mindedness,  in  reverence,  in  the 
sense  of  beauty,  in  devoutness,  in  the  thrill  of 
awe,  which  Goethe  says  is  the  highest  thing  in 
man.  If  the  teacher  is  forbidden  to  touch  upon 
religion,  the  source  of  these  noble  virtues  and 
ideal  moods  is  sealed.  His  work  and  influ- 
ence become  mechanical,  and  he  will  form 
but  commonplace  and  vulgar  men.  And  if  an 
educational  system  is  established  on  this  narrow 
and  material  basis,  the  result  will  be  deteriora- 
tion of  the  national  type,  and  the  loss  of  the 
finer  qualities  which  make  men  many-sided  and 
interesting,  which  are  the  safeguards  of  per- 
sonal purity  and  of  unselfish  conduct. 

Religion  is  the  vital  element  in  character,  and 
to  treat  it  as  though  it  were  but  an  incidental 
phase  of  man's  life  is  to  blunder  in  a  matter  of 
the  highest  and  most  serious  import.  Man  is 
born  to  act,  and  thought  is  valuable  mainly  as  a 
guide  to  action.  Now,  the  chief  inspiration  to 
action,  and  above  all  to  right  action,  is  found  in 
faith,  hope,  and  love,  the  virtues  of  religion,  and 
not  in    knowledge,  the    virtue    of  the  intellect 


170      MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

Knowledge,  indeed,  is  effectual  only  when  it  is 
loved,  believed  in,  and  held  to  be  a  ground  for 
hope.  Man  does  not  live  on  bread  alone,  and 
if  he  is  brought  up  to  look  to  material  things, 
as  to  the  chief  good,  his  higher  faculties  will  be 
stunted.  If  to  do  rightly  rather  than  to  think 
keenly  is  man's  chief  business  here  on  earth, 
then  the  virtues  of  religion  are  more  important 
than  those  of  the  intellect ;  for  to  think  is  to  be 
unresolved,  whereas  to  believe  is  to  be  impelled 
in  the  direction  of  one's  faith.  In  epochs  of 
doubt  things  fall  to  decay;  in  epochs  of  faith 
the  powers  which  make  for  full  and  vigorous 
life,  hold  sway.  The  education  which  forms 
character  is  indispensable,  that  which  trains  the 
mind  is  desirable.  The  essential  element  in 
human  life  is  conduct,  and  conduct  springs  from 
what  we  believe,  cling  to,  love,  and  yearn  for, 
vastly  more  than  from  what  we  know.  The 
decadence  and  ruin  of  individuals  and  of  socie- 
ties come  from  lack  of  virtue,  not  from  lack  of 
knowledge.  "  The  hard  and  valuable  part  of 
education,"  says  Locke,  "  is  virtue;  this  is  the 
solid  and  substantial  good,  which  the  teacher 
should  never  cease  to  inculcate  till  the  young 
man  places  his  strength,  his  glory,  and  his 
pleasure  in  it."  We  may,  of  course,  distinguish 
between  morality  and  religion,  between  ethics 
and    theology.     As  a  matter   of  fact,    however, 


RELIGIOUS  ELEMENT  IN  EDUCATION.     171 

moral  laws  have  everywhere  reposed  upon  the 
basis  of  religion,  and  their  sanction  has  been 
sought  in  the  principles  of  faith.  As  an  im- 
moral religion  is  false,  so,  if  there  is  no  God,  a 
moral  law  is  meaningless. 

Theorists  may  be  able  to  construct  a  system 
of  ethics  upon  a  foundation  of  materialism  ;  but 
their  mechanical  and  utilitarian  doctrines  have 
not  the  power  to  exalt  the  imagination  or  to 
confirm  the  will.  Their  educational  value  is 
feeble.  Here  in  America  we  have  already 
passed  the  stage  of  social  development  in  which 
we  might  hold  out  to  the  young,  as  an  ideal,  the 
hope  of  becoming  President  of  the  Republic,  or 
the  possessor  of  millions  of  money.  \Vc  know 
what  sorry  men  presidents  and  millionnaires  may 
be.  We  cannot  look  upon  our  country  simply 
as  a  wide  race-course  with  well-filled  purses 
hanging  at  the  goal  for  the  prize-winners.  We 
clearly  perceive  that  a  man's  possessions  are 
not  himself,  and  that  he  is  or  ought  to  be  more 
than  anything  which  can  belong  to  him.  Ideals 
of  excellence,  therefore,  must  be  substituted  for 
those  of  success.  Opinion  governs  the  world, 
but  ideals  draw  souls  and  stimulate  to  noble 
action.  The  more  we  transform  with  the  aid  of 
machinery  the  world  of  matter,  the  more  neces- 
sary does  it  become  that  we  make  plain  to  all 
that   man's  true  home  is  the   world  of  thought 


1/2      MEANS  AND  ENDS   OF  EDUCATION. 

and  love,  of  hope  and  aspiration.  The  ideals 
of  utilitarianism  and  secularism  are  unsatis- 
factory. They  make  no  appeal  to  the  infinite 
in  man,  to  that  in  him  which  makes  pursuit 
better  than  possession,  and  which,  could  he 
believe  there  is  no  absolute  truth,  love,  and 
beauty,  would  lead  him  to  despair.  To-day,  as 
of  old,  the  soul  is  born  of  God  and  for  God,  and 
finds  no  peace  unless  it  rest  in  him.  Theology, 
assuredly,  is  not  religion  ;  but  religion  implies 
theology,  and  a  church  without  a  creed  is  a 
body  without  articulation.  The  virtues  of  reli- 
gion are  indispensable.  Without  them,  it  is  not 
well  either  with  individuals  or  with  nations  ;  but 
these  virtues  cannot  be  inculcated  by  those 
who,  standing  aloof  from  ecclesiastical  organiza- 
tions, are  thereby  cut  off  from  the  thought  and 
work  of  all  who  in  every  age  have  most  loved 
God,  and  whose  faith  in  the  soul  has  been 
most  living.  Religious  men  have  wrought  for 
God  in  the  church,  as  patriots  have  wrought  for 
liberty  and  justice  in  the  nation;  and  to  exclude 
the  representatives  of  the  churches  from  the 
school  is  practically  to  exclude  religion,  —  the 
power  which  more  than  all  others  makes  for 
righteousness,  which  inspires  hope  and  confi- 
dence, which  makes  possible  faith  in  the  whole 
human  brotherhood,  in  the  face  even  of  the  polit- 
ical and  social  wrongs  which  are  still  everywhere 


RELIGIOUS  ELEMENT  IN  EDUCATION.     1 73 

tolerated.  To  exclude  religion  is  to  exclude 
the  spirit  of  reverence,  of  gentleness  and  obedi- 
ence, of  modesty  and  purity;  it  is  to  exclude 
the  spirit  by  which  the  barbarians  have  been 
civilized,  by  which  woman  has  been  uplifted 
and  ennobled  and  the  child  made  sacred.  From 
many  sides  the  demand  is  made  that  the  State 
schools  exercise  a  greater  moral  influence,  that 
they  be  made  efficient  in  forming  character  as 
well  as  in  training  the  mind.  It  is  recognized 
that  knowing  how  to  read  and  write  does  not 
insure  good  behavior.  Since  the  State  as- 
sumes the  office  of  teacher,  there  is  a  disposi- 
tion among  parents  to  make  the  school  respon- 
sible for  their  children's  morals  as  well  as  for  their 
minds,  and  thus  the  influence  of  the  home  is 
weakened.  Whatever  the  causes  may  be,  there 
seems  to  be  a  tendency,  both  in  private  and  in 
public  life,  to  lower  ethical  standards.  The 
moral  influence  of  the  secular  school  is  neces- 
sarily feeble,  since  our  ideas  of  right  and  wrong 
are  so  interfused  with  the  principles  of  Chris- 
tianity that  to  ignore  our  religious  convictions 
is  practically  to  put  aside  the  question  of  con- 
science. If  the  State  may  take  no  cognizance 
of  sin,  neither  may  its  school  do  so.  But  in 
morals  sin  is  the  vital  matter;  crime  is  but  its 
legal  aspect.  Men  begin  as  sinners  before  they 
end  as  criminals. 


174      MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

The  atmosphere  of  religion  is  the  natural 
medium  for  the  development  of  character.  If 
we  appeal  to  the  sense  of  duty,  we  assume 
belief  in  God  and  in  the  freedom  of  the  will;  if 
we  strive  to  awaken  enthusiasm  for  the  human 
brotherhood,  we  imply  a  divine  fatherhood. 
Accordingly,  as  we  accept  or  reject  the  doc- 
trines of  religion,  the  sphere  of  moral  action, 
the  nature  of  the  distinction  between  right  and 
wrong,  and  the  motives  of  conduct  all  change. 
In  the  purely  secular  school  only  secular  moral- 
ity may  be  taught;  and  whatever  our  opinion  of 
this  system  of  ethics  may  otherwise  be,  it  is 
manifestly  deficient  in  the  power  which  appeals 
to  the  heart  and  the  conscience.  The  child 
lives  in  a  world  which  imagination  creates, 
where  faith,  hope,  and  love  beckon  to  realms  of 
beauty  and  delight.  The  spiritual  and  moral 
truths  which  arc  to  become  the  very  lifc-brcath 
of  his  soul  he  apprehends  mystically,  not  logi- 
cally. Heaven  lies  about  him;  he  lives  in 
wonderland,  and  feels  the  thrill  of  awe  as  natu- 
rally as  he  looks  with  wide-open  eyes.  Do  not 
seek  to  persuade  him  by  telling  him  that 
honesty  is  the  best  policy,  that  poverty  over- 
takes the  drunkard,  that  lechery  breeds  disease, 
that  to  act  for  the  common  welfare  is  the  surest 
way  to  get  what  is  good  for  one's  self;  for  such 
teaching  will  not  only  leave  him  unimpressed, 


REL IGIO  US  ELEMENT  IN  ED  UCA  TION     I  J  5 

but  it  will  seem  to  him  profane,  and  almost 
immoral.  He  wants  to  feel  that  he  is  the  child 
of  God,  of  the  infinitely  good  and  all-wonderful ; 
that  in  his  father,  divine  wisdom  and  strength 
are  revealed;  in  his  mother,  divine  tenderness 
and  love.  Pie  so  believes  and  trusts  in  God 
that  it  is  our  fault  if  he  knows  that  men  can 
be  base.  In  nothing  does  the  godlike  char- 
acter of  Christ  show  forth  more  beautifully 
than  in  His  reverence  for  children.  Shall  we 
profess  to  believe  in  Him,  and  yet  forbid  His 
name  to  be  spoken  in  the  houses  where  we 
seek  to  train  the  little  ones  whom  He  loved? 
Shall  we  shut  out  Him  whose  example  has  done 
more  to  humanize,  ennoble,  and  uplift  the  race 
of  man  than  all  the  teachings  of  the  philoso- 
phers and  all  the  disquisitions  of  the  moralists? 
If  the  thinkers,  from  Plato  and  Aristotle  to 
Kant  and  Pestalozzi,  who  have  dealt  with  the 
problems  of  education,  have  held  that  virtue  is 
its  chief  aim  and  end,  shall  we  thrust  from  the 
school  the  one  ideal  character  who,  for  nearly 
nineteen  hundred  years,  has  been  the  chief 
inspiration  to  righteousness  and  heroism ;  to 
whose  words  patriots  and  reformers  have  ap- 
pealed in  their  struggles  for  liberty  and  right; 
to  whose  example  philanthropists  have  looked 
in  their  labors  to  alleviate  suffering;  to  whose 
teaching  the   modern  age   owes   its    faith  in   the 


176       MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

brotherhood  of  men ;  by  whose  courage  and 
sympathy  the  world  has  been  made  conscious 
that  the  distinction  between  man  and  woman  is 
meant  for  the  propagation  of  the  race,  but  that 
as  individuals  they  have  equal  rights  and  should 
have  equal  opportunities  ?  We  all,  and  especially 
the  young,  are  influenced  by  example  more 
than  by  precepts  and  maxims,  and  it  is  unjust 
and  unreasonable  to  exclude  from  the  school- 
room the  living  presence  of  the  noblest  and  best 
men  and  women,  of  those  whose  words  and  deeds 
have  created  our  Christian  civilization.  In  the 
example  of  their  lives  we  have  truth  and  justice, 
goodness  and  greatness,  in  concrete  form ;  and 
the  young  who  are  brought  into  contact  with 
these  centres  of  influence  will  be  filled  with 
admiration  and  enthusiasm ;  they  will  be  made 
gentle  and  reverent ;  and  they  will  learn  to  real- 
ize the  ever-fresh  charm  and  force  of  personal 
purity.  Teachers  who  have  no  moral  criteria, 
no  ideals,  no  counsels  of  perfection,  no  devotion 
to  God  and  godlike  men,  cannot  educate,  if  the 
proper  meaning  of  education  is  the  complete 
unfolding  of  all  man's  powers. 

The  school,  of  course,  is  but  one  of  the  many 
agencies  by  which  education  is  given.  We  are 
under  the  influence  of  our  whole  environment, 
—  physical,  moral,  and  intellectual;  political, 
social,   and  religious;   and   if,   in   all  this,  aught 


RELIGIOUS  ELEMENT  IN  EDUCATION.     I  77 

were  different,  we  ourselves  should  be  other. 
The  family  is  a  school  and  the  church  is  a 
school;  and  current  American  opinion  assigns 
to  them  the  business  of  moral  and  religious 
education.  But  this  implies  that  conduct  and 
character  are  of  secondary  importance;  it  sup- 
poses that  the  child  may  be  made  subject  to 
opposite  influences  at  home  and  in  the  school, 
and  not  thereby  have  his  finer  sense  of  reverence, 
truth,  and  goodness  deadened.  The  subduing 
of  the  lower  nature,  of  the  outward  to  the  inner 
man,  is  a  thing  so  arduous  that  reason,  religion, 
and  law  combined  often  fail  to  accomplish  it. 
If  one  should  propose  to  do  away  with  schools 
altogether,  and  to  leave  education  to  the  family 
and  the  Church,  he  would  be  justly  considered 
ridiculous ;  because  the  carelessness  of  parents 
and  the  inability  of  the  ministry  of  the  Church 
would  involve  the  prevalence  of  illiteracy. 
Now,  to  leave  moral  and  religious  education  to 
the  family  and  the  churches  involves,  for  simi- 
lar reasons,  the  prevalence  of  indifference,  sin, 
and  crime.  If  illiteracy  is  a  menace  to  free 
institutions,  vice  and  irreligion  are  a  greater 
menace.  The  corrupt  are  always  bad  citizens ; 
the  ignorant  are  not  necessarily  so.  Parents 
who  would  not  have  their  children  taught  to 
read  and  write,  were  there  no  free  schools,  will 
as  a  rule  neglect  their  religious  and  moral  edu- 


178      MEANS  AND   ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

cation.  In  giving  religious  instruction  to  the 
young,  the  churches  are  plainly  at  a  disadvan- 
tage ;  for  they  have  the  child  but  an  hour  or 
two  in  seven  days,  and  they  get  into  their  Sun- 
day classes  only  the  children  of  the  more 
devout. 

If  the  chief  end  of  education  is  virtue  ;  if  con- 
duct is  three-fourths  of  life  ;  if  character  is  indis- 
pensable, while  knowledge  is  only  useful,  —  then 
it  follows  that  religion — which,  more  than  any 
other  vital  influence,  has  power  to  create  virtue, 
to  inspire  conduct,  and  to  mould  character  — 
should  enter  into  all  the  processes  of  education. 
Our  school  system,  then,  does  not  rest  upon 
a  philosophic  view  of  life  and  education.  We 
have  done  what  it  was  easiest  to  do,  not  what  it 
was  best  to  do ;  and  in  this,  as  in  other  instances, 
churchmen  have  been  willing  to  sacrifice  the 
interests  of  the  nation  to  the  whims  of  a  narrow 
and  jealous  temper.  The  denominational  sys- 
tem of  popular  education  is  the  right  system. 
The  secular  system  is  a  wrong  system.  The 
practical  difficulties  to  be  overcome  that  reli- 
gious instruction  may  be  given  in  the  schools 
are  relatively  unimportant,  and  would  be  set 
aside  if  the  people  were  thoroughly  persuaded 
of  its  necessity.  An  objection  which  Dr. 
Harris,  among  others,  insists  upon,  that  the 
method  of  science  and  the  method  of  religion 


RELIGIOUS  ELEMENT  IN  EDUCATION.     1 79 

are  dissimilar,  and  that  therefore  secular  knowl- 
edge and  religious  knowledge  should  not  be 
taught  in  the  same  school,  seems  to  me  to  have 
no  weight.  The  method  of  mathematics  is  not 
the  method  of  biology;  the  method  of  logic  is 
not  the  method  of  poetry ;  but  they  are  all 
taught  in  the  same  school.  A  good  teacher,  in 
fact,  employs  many  methods.  In  teaching  the 
child  grammatical  analysis,  he  has  no  fear  of 
doing  harm  to  his  imagination  or  his  talent  for 
composition. 

No  system,  however,  can  give  assurance  that 
the  school  is  good.  To  determine  this  we  must 
know  the  spirit  which  lives  in  it.  The  intellec- 
tual, moral,  and  religious  atmosphere  which  the 
child  breathes  there  is  of  far  more  importance, 
from  an  educational  point  of  view,  than  any 
doctrines  he  may  learn  by  rote,  than  any  acts 
of  worship  he  may  perform. 

The  teacher  makes  the  school ;  and  when 
high,  pure,  devout,  and  enlightened  men  and 
women  educate,  the  conditions  favorable  to 
mental  and  moral  growth  will  be  found,  pro- 
vided a  false  system  does  not  compel  them  to 
assume  a  part  and  play  a  role,  while  the  true 
self — the  faith,  hope,  and  love  whereby  they 
live  —  is  condemned  to  inaction.  The  deeper 
tendency  of  the  present  age  is  not,  I  think,  to 
exclude   religion    from    any    vital    process,    but 


1 80       MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

rather  to  widen  the  content  of  the  idea  of  reli- 
gion until  it  embrace  the  whole  life  of  man. 
The  worship  of  God  is  not  now  the  worship  of 
infinite  wisdom,  holiness,  and  justice  alone,  but 
is  also  the  worship  of  the  humane,  the  beautiful, 
and  the  industriously  active.  Whether  we  work 
for  knowledge  or  freedom,  or  purity  or  strength, 
or  beauty  or  health,  or  aught  else  that  is  friendly 
to  completeness  of  life,  we  work  with  God  and 
for  God.  In  the  school,  as  in  whatever  other 
place  in  the  boundless  universe  a  man  may 
find  himself,  he  finds  himself  with  God,  in  Him 
moves,  lives,  and  has  his  being. 


THE  HIGHER  EDUCATION.  l8l 


CHAPTER   VII. 


THE   HIGHER   EDUCATION.1 

THE  subject  which  I  have  been  asked  to 
treat  is  the  higher  education  of  priests ; 
which,  I  suppose,  is  the  highest  education  of 
man,  since  the  ideal  of  the  Christian  priest  is 
the  most  exalted,  his  vocation  the  most  sublime, 
his  office  the  most  holy,  his  duties  the  most 
spiritual,  and  his  mission  — whether  we  consider 
its  relation  to  morality,  which  is  the  basis  of 
individual  and  social  welfare,  or  to  religion, 
which  is  the  promise  and  the  secret  of  immortal 
and  godlike  life  —  is  the  most  important  and  the 
most  sacred  which  can  be  assigned  to  a  human 
being. 

Religion  and  education  —  like  religion  and 
morality  —  are  nearly  related.  Pure  religion, 
indeed,  is  more  than  right  education ;  and  yet  it 
may  be  said  with  truth  that  it  is  but  a  part  of 
the  best  education,  for  it  co-operates  with  other 
forces  —  with  climate,  custom,  social  conditions, 

1  A  discourse  pronounced  at  the  Third  Plenary  Coun- 
cil of  Baltimore,  which,  being  enforced  by  the  offer  of 
three  hundred  thousand  dollars  by  Miss  Caldwell,  led  to 
the  founding  of  the  University  at  Washington. 


1 82       MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

and  political  institutions  —  to  develop  and  fashion 
the  complete  man ;  and  the  special  instruction 
of  teachers  —  which  is  the  narrow  meaning  of 
the  word  —  is  modified,  and  to  a  great  extent 
controlled,  by  these  powers  which  work  unseen, 
and  are  the  vital  agents  that  make  possible  all 
conscious   educational  efforts. 

The  faith  we  hold,  the  laws  we  obey,  the 
domestic  and  social  customs  to  which  our 
thoughts  and  loves  are  harmonized,  the  climate 
we  live  in,  mould  our  characters  and  give  to 
our  souls  a  deeper  and  more  lasting  tinge  than 
any  school,  though  it  were  the  best. 

My  subject,  however,  docs  not  demand  that  I 
consider  these  general  and  silent  agencies  by 
which  life  is  influenced,  but  leads  me  to  the 
discussion  of  the  methods  by  which  man,  with 
conscious  purpose,  seeks  to  form  and  instruct 
his  fellow-man ;  to  the  discussion  of  the  special 
education  which  brings  art  to  the  aid  of  nature, 
and  becomes  the  auxiliary  and  guide  of  the 
other  forces  which  contribute  to  the  develop- 
ment of  our  being. 

In  this  age,  when  all  who  think  at  all  turn  their 
thoughts  to  questions  of  education,  it  is  needless 
to  call  attention  to  the  interest  of  the  subject, 
which,  like  hope,  is  immortal,  and  fresh  as  the 
innocent  face  of  laughing  childhood. 

Is    not   the    school    for  all    men   a  shrine  to 


THE  HIGHER  EDUCATION.  1 83 

which  their  pilgrim  thoughts  return  to  catch 
again  the  glow  and  gladness  of  a  world  wherein 
they  lived  by  faith  and  hope  and  love  when 
round  the  morning  sun  of  life  the  golden  purple 
clouds  were  hanging,  and  earth  lay  hidden  in 
mist,  beneath  which  the  soul  created  a  new  para- 
dise? To  the  opening  mind  all  things  are 
young  and  fair;  and  to  remember  the  delight 
that  accompanied  the  gradual  dawn  of  knowl- 
edge upon  our  mental  vision,  sweet  and  beauti- 
ful as  the  upglowing  of  day  from  the  bosom  of 
night,  is  to  be  forever  thankful  for  the  gracious 
power  of  education.  And  is  there  not  in  all 
hearts  a  deep  and  abiding  yearning  for  great  and 
noble  men,  and  therefore  an  imperishable  inter- 
est in  the  power  by  which  they  are  moulded? 
When  fathers  and  mothers  look  upon  the  fair 
blossoming  children  that  cling  to  them  as  the 
vine  wraps  its  tendrils  round  the  spreading 
bough,  and  when  their  great  love  fills  them  with 
ineffable  longing  to  shield  these  tender  souls 
from  the  blighting  blasts  of  a  cold  and  stormy 
world,  and  little  by  little  to  prepare  them  to 
stand  alone  and  breast  the  gales  of  fortune,  do 
they  not  instinctively  put  their  trust  in  the 
power  of  education? 

When,  at  the  beginning  of  the  present  century, 
Germany  lay  prostrate  at  the  feet  of  Napoleon, 
the  wise  and  the  patriotic  among  her  children 


1 84      MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

yielded  not  to  despondency,  but  turned  with 
confidence  to  truer  methods  and  systems  of 
education,  and  assiduous  teaching  and  patient 
waiting  finally  brought  them  to  Sedan. 

When,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  heresy  and 
schism  seemed  near  to  final  victory  over  the 
Church,  Pope  Julius  III.  declared  that  the  evils 
and  abuses  of  the  times  were  the  outgrowth  of 
the  shameful  ignorance  of  the  clergy,  and  that 
the  chief  hope  of  the  dawning  of  a  brighter  day 
lay  in  general  and  thorough  ecclesiastical  edu- 
cation. And  the  Catholic  leaders  who  finally 
turned  back  the  advancing  power  of  Protestan- 
tism, re-established  the  Church  in  half  the  coun- 
tries in  which  it  had  been  overthrown,  and 
converted  more  souls  in  America  and  Asia 
than  had  been  lost  in  Europe,  belonged  to  the 
greatest  educational  body  the  world  has  ever 
seen.  What  is  history  but  examples  of  success 
through  knowledge  and  righteousness,  and  of 
failure  through  lack  of  understanding  and  of 
virtue? 

Wherein  lies  the  superiority  of  civilized  races 
over  barbarians  if  not  in  their  greater  knowl- 
edge and  superior  strength  of  character?  And 
what  but  education  has  placed  in  the  hands  of 
man  the  thousand  natural  forces  which  he 
holds  as  a  charioteer  his  well-reined  steeds, 
bidding   the  winds  carry  him  to    distant   lands, 


THE  HIGHER  EDUCATION.  1 85 

making  steam  his  tireless,  ever-ready  slave,  and 
commanding  the  lightning  to  speak  his  words  to 
the  ends  of  the  earth?  What  else  than  this  has 
taught  him  to  map  the  boundless  heavens,  to 
read  the  footprints  of  God  in  the  crust  of  the 
earth  ages  before  human  beings  lived,  to  meas- 
ure the  speed  of  light,  to  weigh  the  impercep- 
tible atom,  to  split  up  all  natural  compounds, 
to  create  innumerable  artificial  products  with 
which  he  transforms  the  world  and  with  a  grain 
of  powder  marches  like  a  conquering  god 
around  the  globe? 

What  converts  the  meaningless  babbling  of 
the  child  into  the  stately  march  of  oratoric 
phrase  or  the  rhythmic  flow  of  poetic  language? 
What  has  developed  the  rude  stone  and  bronze 
implements  of  savage  and  barbarous  hordes 
into  the  miraculous  machinery  which  we  use? 
By  what  power  has  man  been  taught  to  carve 
the  shapeless  rock  into  an  image  of  ideal  beauty, 
or  with  it  to  build  his  thought  into  a  temple  of 
God,  where  the  soul  instinctively  prostrates 
itself  in  adoration? 

Is  not  all  this,  together  with  whatever  else  is 
excellent  in  human  works,  the  result  of  educa- 
tion, which  gives  to  man  a  second  nature  with 
more  admirable  endowments?  And  is  not  reli- 
gion itself  a  kind  of  celestial  education,  which 
trains  the  soul  to  godlike  life? 


1 86       MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

No  progress  in  things  divine  or  human  is 
made  by  man  except  through  effort,  and  effort 
is  the  power  and  the  law  of  education.  The 
maxim  of  the  spiritual  writers  that  not  to  struggle 
upward  and  onward  is  to  be  drawn  downward, 
applies  to  every  phase  of  our  life.  Whence  do 
we  derive  strength  of  soul  but  from  the  uplifting 
of  the  mind  and  heart  to  God  which  we  call 
prayer?  To  pray  is  to  think,  to  attend,  to  hold 
the  mind  lovingly  to  its  object ;  and  this  is  what 
we  do  when  we  study.  Hence  prayer,  which  is 
the  voice  of  religion,  is  a  part  of  education,  — 
nay,  its  very  soul,  breathing  on  all  the  chords  of 
life,  till  their  thousand  dissonances  meet  in  rhyth- 
mic harmony.  What  is  the  pulpit  but  the  holiest 
teacher's  chair  that  has  been  placed  upon  the 
earth? 

And  as  the  presence  of  a  noble  character  is  a 
more  potent  influence  than  words,  so  sacramen- 
tal communion  with  Christ  is  man's  chief  school 
of  faith,  of  hope,  and  love.  There  are  worthy 
persons  who  turn,  as  from  an  unholy  thought, 
from  the  emphatic  announcement  of  the  need  of 
the  best  human  qualities  for  the  proper  defence 
of  the  cause  of  God  in  the  world.  Such  speech 
seems  to  them  to  be  vain  and  unreal;  for  God  is 
all  in  all,  and  man  is  nothing.  But  in  our  day  it 
is  easier  to  go  astray  in  the  direction  of  self-anni- 
hilation than  in  that  of  self-assertion ;   since  the 


THE  HIGHER  EDUCATION.  1 87 

common  tendency  now  of  all  false  philosophies 
is  pantheistic,  and  issues  in  unconscious  con- 
tempt of  individual  life.  If  man  is  but  a  bubble, 
merging  forth  and  re-absorbed,  without  past  or 
future,  then  indeed  both  he,  and  what  he  seems 
to  do,  sink  into  the  eternal  flow  of  matter,  and 
are  undeserving  of  a  thought.  This  certainly  is 
not  the  Christian  view,  to  which  man  is  revealed 
as  a  lesser  god,  and  co-worker  with  the  Eternal, 
whose  thought  can  reach  the  infinite,  and  whose 
will  can  oppose  that  of  the  Omnipotent.  In 
Christ,  God  co-operates  with  man  for  the  salva- 
tion of  the  world ;  and  in  the  Church,  man  co- 
operates with  God  to  this  same  end.  The  more 
complete  the  man,  the  more  fit  is  he  to  work 
with  God.  Even  bodily  disfigurement  is  looked 
upon  as  an  obstacle;  how  much  more,  then, 
shall  lack  of  intelligence  and  want  of  heart 
render  us  unworthy  of  the  divine  office?  I 
certainly  shall  never  deny  that  love,  which  the 
Apostle  exalts  above  faith  and  hope,  is  higher 
also  than  knowledge.  The  light  of  the  mind  is 
as  that  of  the  moon  —  fair  and  soft  and  sooth- 
ing, without  heat,  without  the  power  to  call 
forth  and  nourish  life;  but  the  light  of  the  soul, 
which  is  love,  is  the  sunlight,  whose  kiss,  like 
a  word  of  God,  makes  the  dead  to  live,  and 
clothes  the  world  in  strength  and  beauty. 
Character    is   more  than   intellect,  love    is  more 


1 88      MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION 

than  knowledge,  religion  is  more  than  moral- 
ity; and  a  great  heart  brings  us  closer  to  God, 
nearer  to  all  goodness,  than  a  bright  mind. 
Education  is  essentially  moral,  and  the  intel- 
lectual qualities  themselves,  which  we  seek  to 
develop,  derive  their  chief  efficacy  from  under- 
lying ethical  qualities  upon  which  they  rest  and 
from  which  they  receive  their  energy  and  the 
power  of  self-control.  Inequality  of  will  is  the 
great  cause  of  inequality  of  mind ;  and  the  will 
is  strengthened  by  the  practice  of  virtue,  as  the 
body  by  food  and  exercise.  If  this  is  a  general 
truth,  with  what  special  force  must  it  not  apply 
to  the  ministers  of  a  religion  the  paramount  and 
ceaseless  aim  of  which  is  to  make  men  holy,  so 
that  at  times  it  has  almost  seemed  as  though  the 
Church  were  indifferent  as  to  whether  they  are 
learned  or  beautiful  or  strong?  She  pronounces 
no  man  a  doctor  unless  he  be  also  a  saint;  and 
when  I  insist  that  the  priest  shall  possess  the  best 
mental  culture  of  his  age,  —  that  without  this  he 
fights  with  broken  weapons,  speaks  with  harsh 
voice  a  language  men  will  neither  hear  nor 
understand,  teaches  truths  which,  having  not  the 
freshness  and  the  glow  of  truth,  neither  kindle 
the  heart  nor  fire  the  imagination,  —  I  do  not 
forget  that,  without  the  moral  earnestness  which 
is  born  of  faith  and  purity  of  life,  mere  cultiva- 
tion of  mind  will  not  give  him  power  to  unseal 


THE   HIGHER  EDUCATION.  1 89 

the  fountains  of  living  waters  which  refresh  the 
garden  of  God.  The  universal  harmony  is  felt 
by  a  pure  heart  better  than  it  can  be  perceived 
by  a  keen  intellect.  To  a  sinless  soul  the  darker 
side  even  of  life  and  nature  is  not  wholly  dark, 
and  the  mental  difficulties  which  the  existence 
of  evil  involves  in  no  way  weaken  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  essential  goodness  that  lies  at 
the  heart  of  all  things.  In  the  religious,  as  in 
the  moral  world,  men  trust  to  what  we  are 
rather  than  to  what  we  say,  and  the  teacher  of 
spiritual  truth  is  never  strong,  unless  his  life 
and  character  inspire  a  confidence  which  argu- 
ments alone  do  not  create ;  for  in  questions  that 
reach  beyond  the  sphere  of  sensation,  we  feel 
that  insight  is  better  than  reasons,  and  hence 
we  instinctively  prefer  the  testimony  of  a  god- 
like soul  to  the  conclusions  of  a  cultivated 
mind :  and  indeed  our  Blessed  Lord  ever 
assumes  that  the  obstacle  to  the  perception  of 
divine  truth  is  moral  and  not  intellectual.  The 
pure  of  heart  see  God;  the  evil-doer  loves 
darkness  and  shuns  the  light.  St.  Paul  goes 
even  farther,  and  associates  mental  cultivation 
with  a  tendency  directly  opposed  to  religious 
faith,  which  is  humble.  "  Knowledge  puffeth 
up."  But  the  words  of  the  Apostle  should  not 
be  stretched  beyond  his  purpose,  which  is  to 
point  to  pride  as  a  special   danger  of  the    in- 


190     MEANS  AND  ENDS    OF  EDUCATION. 

tcllectual  as  sensuality  is  a  danger  of  the  igno- 
rant. For  man  to  have  aught  is  to  run  a  risk, 
and  hence  to  do  as  little  as  possible  is  in  the 
thought  of  the  timid  a  mark  of  prudence. 
And  indeed,  if  fear  be  nearer  to  wisdom  than 
courage,  then  should  we  fear  everything,  for 
danger  is  everywhere.  A  breath  may  sow  the 
seed  of  death;  a  look  may  slay  the  soul.  In 
knowledge,  in  ignorance,  in  strength,  in  weak- 
ness, in  wealth,  in  poverty,  in  genius,  in  stupidity, 
in  company,  in  solitude,  in  innocence  itself,  danger 
lurks.  But  God  docs  not  abolish  life  that  danger 
may  cease  to  be;  and  they  who  put  their  trust  in 
Him  will  not  seek  to  darken  the  mind  lest 
knowledge  lead  man  astray,  but  will  rather  in  a 
righteous  cause  make  the  venture  of  all  things, 
as  St.  Ignatius  preferred  the  hope  of  saving 
others  to  the  certainty  of  his  own  salvation. 
And  may  we  not  maintain,  since  we  hold  that 
there  is  no  inappeasable  conflict  between  God 
and  Nature,  between  the  soul  and  matter, 
between  revelation  and  science,  that  the  appa- 
rent antagonism  lies  in  our  apprehension,  and 
not  in  things  themselves,  and  consequently  that 
reconcilement  is  to  be  sought  for  through  the 
help  of  thoroughly  trained  minds?  The  poet 
speaks  the  truth,  "  A  little  knowledge  is  a 
dangerous  thing."  They  who  know  but  little 
and  imperfectly,  see  but  their  knowledge,  if  so 


THE   HIGHER   EDUCATION.  191 

it  may  be  called,  and  walk  in  innocent  uncon- 
sciousness of  their  infinite  nescience.  The  nar- 
rower the  range  of  our  mental  vision,  the  greater 
the  obstinacy  with  which  we  cling  to  our 
opinions ;  and  the  half-educated,  like  the  weak 
and  the  incompetent,  are  often  contentious,  but 
whosoever  is  able  to  do  his  work  does  it,  and 
finds  no  time  for  dispute.  He  who  possesses  a 
disciplined  mind,  and  is  familiar  with  the  best 
thoughts  that  live  in  the  great  literatures,  will 
be  the  last  to  attach  undue  importance  to  his 
own  thinking.  A  sense  of  decency  and  a  kind 
of  holy  shame  will  keep  him  far  from  angry  and 
unprofitable  controversy;  nor  will  he  mistake  a 
crotchet  for  a  panacea,  nor  imagine  that  irrita- 
tion is  enlightenment.  The  blessings  of  a  culti- 
vated mind  are  akin  to  those  of  religion.  They 
arc  larger  liberty,  wider  life,  purer  delights,  and 
a  juster  sense  of  the  relative  values  of  the  means 
and  ends  which  lie  within  our  reach.  Knowl- 
edge, like  religion,  leads  us  away  from  what 
appears  to  what  is,  from  what  passes  to  what 
remains,  from  what  Hatters  the  senses  to  that 
which  speaks  to  the  soul.  Wisdom  and  reli- 
gion converge,  as  love  and  knowledge  meet 
in  God ;  and  to  the  wise  as  to  the  reli- 
gious man,  no  great  evil  can  happen.  Into 
prison  they  both  carry  the  sweet  company  of 
their  thoughts,    their   faith    and    hope,   and    are 


192       MEANS  AND   ENDS  OE  EDUCATION 

freer  in  chains  than  the  great  in  palaces.  In 
death  they  are  in  the  midst  of  life,  for  they  see 
that  what  they  know  and  love  is  imperishable, 
nor  subject  even  to  atomic  disintegration.  He 
who  lives  in  the  presence  of  truth  yearns  not  for 
the  company  of  men,  but  loves  retirement  as  a 
saint  loves  solitude ;  and  in  times  like  ours, 
when  men  no  longer  choose  the  desert  for  a 
dwelling-place,  the  passionate  desire  of  intellec- 
tual excellence  co-operates  with  religious  faith 
to  guard  them  against  dissipation  and  to  lift 
them  above  the  spirit  of  the  age.  The  thinker 
is  never  lonely,  as  he  who  lives  with  God  is 
never  unhappy.  Is  not  the  love  of  excellence, 
which  is  the  scholar's  love,  a  part  of  the  love 
of  goodness  which  makes  the  saint?  And  are 
not  intellectual  delights  akin  to  those  religion 
brings?  They  are  pure,  they  elevate,  they 
refine;  time  only  increases  their  charm,  and  in 
the  winter  of  age,  when  the  body  is  but  the 
agent  of  pain,  contemplation  still  remains  like 
the  light  of  a  higher  world,  to  tinge  with  beauty 
the  clouds  that  gather  around  life's  setting. 
How  narrow  and  monotonous  is  sensation ! 
how  wide  and  various  is  thought !  They  who 
live  in  the  senses  are  fettered  and  ill  at  ease ; 
they  who  live  in  the  soul  are  free  and  joyful. 
And  since  the  priest,  unless  he  be  a  saint,  must 
have,    like    other    men,    some    human   joy,  and 


THE  HIGHER  EDUCATION.  1 93 

since  he  dwells  not  in  the  sacred  circle  of  the 
love  of  wife  and  children,  in  which  the  multitudes 
find  repose  and  contentment,  what  solace,  what 
refreshment,  in  the  midst  of  cares  and  labors, 
shall  we  offer  him?  If  there  be  aught  for  him 
that  is  not  unworthy  or  dangerous,  except  the 
pleasures  of  the  mind,  to  me  it  is  unknown ;  and 
though  a  well-trained  intellect  should  do  no 
more  than  to  enable  us  to  take  delight  in  pure 
and  noble  objects,  it  would  be  a  chief  help  to 
worthy  life.  And  when  the  whole  tendency  of 
our  social  existence  is  to  draw  men  out  of  them- 
selves and  to  make  them  seek  the  good  of  life 
in  what  is  external,  as  money,  display,  position, 
renown,  is  it  not  a  gain,  if,  while  we  open  their 
minds  to  the  charm  of  intellectual  beauty,  we 
make  them  see  that  this  eager  striving  for  wealth 
and  place  is  a  vulgar  chase?  And  does  not  the 
spirit  of  refinement  in  thought,  in  speech,  in 
manner,  add  worth  and  fairness  to  him  whom  it 
inspires,  though  the  motive  which  preserves  him 
from  what  is  low  or  gross  be  no  higher  than  a 
fastidious  delicacy  and  self-respect? 

To  deny  the  moral  influence  of  intellectual 
culture  is  as  great  an  error  as  to  affirm  that  it 
alone  is  a  sufficient  safeguard  of  morality.  Its 
tendency  unquestionably  is  to  make  men  gen- 
tle,  amiable,  fair-minded,  truthful,  benevolent, 
modest,  sober.  It  curbs  ambition  and  teaches 
'3 


194      MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

resignation;  chastens  the  imagination  and  miti- 
gates ferocity  ;  dissuades  from  duelling  because 
it  is  barbarous,  and  from  war  because  it  is  cruel, 
and  from  persecution  because  it  trusts  in  the 
prevalence  of  reason.  It  seeks  to  fit  the  mind 
and  the  character  to  the  world,  to  all  possible 
circumstances,  so  that  whatever  happens  we 
remain  ourselves, — calm,  clear-seeing,  able  to 
do  and  to  suffer.  At  great  heights,  or  in  the 
presence  of  irresistible  force,  as  of  a  mighty 
waterfall,  we  grow  dizzy;  and  in  the  same  way, 
in  the  midst  of  multitudes,  in  the  eagerness  of 
strife,  in  the  whirlwind  of  passion,  equipoise  is 
lost,  and  we  cease  to  be  ourselves,  to  become 
part  of  an  aggregate  of  forces  that  hurry  us  on, 
whither  we  know  not.  To  be  able  to  stand  in 
the  presence  of  such  power,  and  to  feel  its  influ- 
ence, and  yet  not  to  lose  self-possession,  is  to  be 
strong;  is,  on  proper  occasion,  to  be  great.  And 
the  aim  of  the  best  education  is  to  teach  us  the 
secret  and  the  method  of  this  complete  self- 
control;  and  in  so  far  it  is  not  only  moral,  but 
also  religious,  though  religion  walks  in  a  more 
royal  road,  and  bids  us  love  God  and  trust  so 
absolutely  in  Him  that  life  and  death  become 
equal,  and  all  the  ways  and  workings  of  men  as 
the  storm  to  one  who  on  lofty  mountain  peak, 
amid  the  blue  heavens,  with  the  sunlight  around 
him  and  the  quiet  breathing  of  the  winds,  sees 


THE   HIGHER  EDUCATION.  1 95 

far  below,  as  in  another  world,  the  black  clouds 
and  lurid  lightning  flash  and  hears  the  roll  of 
distant  thunder. 

It  is  far  from  my  thought,  it  is  needless  to  say, 
that  mental  cultivation  can  be  made  to  take  the 
place  or  do  the  work  of  religion,  even  in  the  case 
of  the  very  few  for  whom  the  best  discipline  of 
mind  is  possible.  My  aim  is  simply  to  show 
that  the  type  of  character  which  it  tends  to 
create  is  not  necessarily  at  variance  with  reli- 
gious principle  and  life,  as  is,  for  instance,  that 
of  the  mere  worldling  ;  but  that  it  conspires  with 
Christian  faith  to  produce,  if  not  the  same,  at 
least  similar  virtues,  though  its  ethical  influence 
is  comparatively  superficial,  and  the  moral  qual- 
ities which  it  produces  lack  consistency  and  the 
power  to  withstand  the  fire  of  the  passions.  It 
is  enough  for  my  purpose  to  point  out  that  if 
intellectualism  is  often  the  foe  of  religious  truth, 
there  is  no  good  reason  why  it  should  not  also 
be  its  ally. 

No  excellence,  as  I  conceive,  of  whatever 
kind,  is  rejected  by  Catholic  teaching,  and  the 
perfection  of  the  mind  is  not  less  divine  than 
the  perfection  of  the  heart.  It  is  good  to  know, 
as  it  is  good  to  hope,  to  believe,  to  love.  A 
cultivated  intellect,  an  open  mind,  a  rich  imagi- 
nation, with  correctness  of  thought,  flexibility 
of  view,  and  eloquent  expression,  are  among  the 


196      MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

noblest  endowments  of  man;  and  though  they 
should  serve  no  other  purpose  than  to  embellish 
life,  to  make  it  fairer  and  freer,  they  would 
nevertheless  be  possessions  without  price,  for 
the  most  nobly  useful  things  are  those  which 
make  life  good  and  beautiful.  Like  virtue  they 
are  their  own  reward,  and  like  mercy  they  bear 
a  double  blessing.  It  is  the  fashion  with  many 
to  affect  contempt  for  men  of  superior  culture, 
because  they  look  upon  education  as  simply  a 
means  to  tangible  ends,  and  think  knowledge 
valuable  only  when  it  can  be  made  to  serve 
practical  purposes.  This  is  a  narrow  and  a  false 
view ;  for  all  men  need  the  noble  and  the  beau- 
tiful, and  he  who  lives  without  an  ideal  is  hardly 
a  man.  Our  material  wants  are  not  the  most 
real  for  being  the  most  sensible  and  pressing, 
and  they  who  create  or  preserve  for  us  models 
of  spiritual  and  intellectual  excellence  are  our 
greatest  benefactors.  Which  were  the  greater 
loss  for  England,  to  be  without  \V cllington  and 
Nelson,  or  to  be  without  Shakspeare  and 
Milton?  Whatever  the  answer  be,  in  the  one 
case  England  would  suffer,  in  the  other  the 
whole  world  would  feel  the  loss.  Though  a 
thoroughly  trained  intellect  is  less  worthy  of 
admiration  than  a  noble  character,  its  power  is 
immeasurably  greater;  for,  example  can  influ- 
ence but  a  few  and  for  a  short  time,  but  when  a 


THE   HIGHER   EDUCATION.  1 97 

truth  or  a  sentiment  has  once  found  its  best 
expression,  it  becomes  a  part  of  literature,  and 
like  a  proverb  is  current  forevermore ;  and  so 
the  kings  of  thought  become  immortal  rulers, 
and  without  their  help  the  godlike  deeds  of 
saints  and  heroes  would  be  buried  in  oblivion. 
"  Words  pass,"  said  Napoleon,  "  but  deeds  re- 
main." The  man  of  action  exaggerates  the 
worth  of  action,  but  the  philosopher  knows  that 
to  act  is  easy,  to  think,  difficult ;  and  that  great 
deeds  spring  from  great  thoughts.  There  are 
words  that  never  grow  silent,  there  are  words 
that  have  changed  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  the 
warrior's  wreath  of  victory  is  entwined  by  the 
Muse's  hand.  The  power  of  Athens  is  gone, 
her  temples  are  in  ruins,  the  Acropolis  is  dis- 
crowned, and  from  Mars'  Hill  no  voice  thunders 
now;  but  the  words  of  Socrates,  the  great  deliv- 
erer of  the  mind,  and  the  father  of  intellectual 
culture,  still  breathe  in  the  thoughts  of  every 
cultivated  man  on  earth.  The  glory  of  Jeru- 
salem has  departed,  the  broken  stones  of  Solo- 
mon's Temple  lie  hard  by  the  graves  that  line 
the  brook  of  Kcdron,  and  from  the  minaret  of 
Mount  Sion  the  misbeliever's  melancholy  call 
sounds  like  a  wail  over  a  lost  world ;  but  the 
songs  of  David  still  rise  from  the  whole  earth  in 
heavenly  concert,  upbearing  to  the  throne  of 
God  the  faith  and  hope  and  love  of  countless 


I98      MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

millions.  And  is  not  the  Blessed  Saviour  the 
Eternal  Word?  And  is  not  the  Bible  God's 
word  ?  And  is  not  the  Gospel  the  Word,  which, 
like  an  electric  thrill,  runs  to  the  ends  of  the 
world?  "Currit  verbum,"  says  St.  Paul.  "Man 
lives  not  on  bread  alone,  but  on  every  word 
that  cometh  forth  from  the  mouth  of  God." 
Nay,  there  is  life  in  all  the  true  and  noble 
thoughts  that  have  blossomed  in  the  mind  of 
genius  and  filled  the  earth  with  fragrance  and 
with  fruit. 

Shall  I  be  told  that  the  intellectual  cultivation 
and  discipline,  which  gives  to  man  control  of 
his  knowledge,  the  perfect  use  of  his  faculties, 
justness  of  perception  with  ease  and  grace  of 
expression,  cannot  bring  serviceable  advocacy 
or  defence  to  the  cause  of  divine  truth?  What 
docs  truth  need  but  to  be  known?  And  since 
to  reach  the  mind  and  heart  of  man  it  must 
be  clothed  in  words,  what  is  so  necessary  to 
it  as  the  garb  and  vesture,  the  form  and  color, 
the  warmth  and  life,  which  shall  so  mark  it  that 
to  be  loved  it  needs  but  be  seen?  And  who 
shall  so  clothe  it,  if  not  he  who  has  the  freest, 
the  most  flexible,  the  clearest,  the  best  disciplined 
mind?  In  the  apostolic  age,  when  the  manifesta- 
tions of  miraculous  power  accompanied  the 
announcement  of  Christian  doctrine,  the  lack  of 
the  persuasive   words  of  human  eloquence  was 


THE  HIGHER   EDUCATION.  1 99 

not  felt.  Let  him  who  can  drink  poison  and 
touch  scorpions,  and  not  suffer  harm,  despise 
the  aid  of  learning;  but  for  us,  who  are  not  so 
assisted,  no  cultivation  of  mind  or  preparation 
of  heart  can  be  too  great;  and  to  appear  in  the 
garb  of  a  savage  were  less  unseemly  than  to 
speak  the  holiest  and  the  highest  truths  in  the 
barbarous  tongue  of  ignorance. 

Our  way  here  cannot  be  doubtful.  Either  we 
must  hold  with  certain  peculiar  heretics  that 
learning  is  a  hindrance  to  the  efficacious  teach- 
ing of  religious  truth,  or,  denying  this,  we  must 
hold,  since  mental  culture  is  serviceable,  that 
the  best  is  most  serviceable. 

May  we  not  take  this  for  a  principle,  —  to  be- 
lieve that  God  does  everything,  and  then  to  act 
as  though  He  left  everything  for  us  to  do?  Or 
this :  Since  grace  supposes  nature,  the  growth 
and  strength  of  the  Church  is  not  wholly  inde- 
pendent of  the  natural  endowments  of  her 
ministers? 

As  a  matter  of  fact  we  Catholics  are  constantly 
speaking  and  acting  upon  principles  of  this 
kind.  We  maintain  that  without  a  proper  edu- 
cation our  children  must  lose  the  faith  ;  and  that 
without  careful  moral  and  mental  training  no 
man  is  likely  to  become  a  good  priest;  and  all 
that  I  further  insist  upon  is  that  if  he  is  to  do 
the  best  work,  he  must  have  the  best  intellectual 


200      MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

discipline.  In  an  intellectual  age,  at  least,  he 
cannot  be  the  worthy  minister  of  worship,  unless 
he  is  also  the  accomplished  teacher  of  truth. 
In  vain  shall  we  clothe  him  in  rich  symbolic 
vestments,  place  him  in  majestic  temples,  before 
marble  altars,  in  the  midst  of  solemn  music,  in 
the  dim  sober-tinted  light,  with  the  great  and 
noble  looking  out  upon  him,  as  from  a  spirit 
world,  —  in  vain  shall  all  this  be,  if  when  he 
himself  speaks,  his  words  are  felt  to  be  but 
the  echo  of  a  coarse  and  empty  mind.  And 
hence  our  enemies  would  gladly  leave  us  the 
poetry  of  our  worship,  would  even  enter  our 
churches  to  be  comforted,  to  be  soothed,  to  seek 
the  elevation  and  enlargement  of  thought  and 
sentiment  which  comes  upon  us  in  the  presence 
of  what  is  vast,  mysterious,  and  sublime,  if  we 
would  but  confess  that  it  is  only  poetry,  good 
and  beautiful  only  as  art  is  good  and  beautiful. 
The  spirit  of  the  time,  in  fact,  it  seems  to  me,  is 
more  and  more  disposed  to  grant  us  everything 
except  the  possession  of  intellectual  truth. 
That  the  Catholic  Church  is  a  marvellous 
power;  that  her  triumphs  have  been  so  endur- 
ing and  so  unexpected  that  only  the  foolish  or 
the  ignorant  will  predict  her  downfall ;  that  she 
overcame  paganism ;  that  she  saved  Christianity 
when  Rome  fell ;  that  she  restrained  the  ferocity 
of  the  barbarians,  protected  the  weak,  encour- 


THE  HIGHER  EDUCATION.  201 

aged  labor,  preserved  the  classics,  maintained 
the  unity  and  sanctity  of  marriage,  defended  the 
purity  and  dignity  of  woman,  espoused  the 
cause  of  the  oppressed,  and  in  a  lawless  and 
ignorant  age  proclaimed  the  supremacy  of  right 
and  the  worth  of  learning ;  that  to  these  signal 
services  must  be  added  her  power  to  give  ease 
and  pleasantness  to  the  social  relations  of  men, 
keeping  them  equally  remote  from  Puritan 
severity  and  pagan  license  ;  her  eye  for  beauty 
and  grace,  which  has  made  her  the  foster- 
mother  of  all  the  arts  ;  her  love  of  the  excellent 
and  the  noble,  which  has  enabled  her  to  cre- 
ate types  of  character  that  are  immortal ;  her 
practical  wisdom,  giving  her  the  secret  of  deal- 
ing with  every  phase  of  life,  so  that  her  saints 
are  doctors,  apostles,  mystics,  philanthropists, 
artists,  poets,  kings,  beggars,  warriors,  peasants, 
barbarians,  philosophers,  —  all  this,  if  I  mistake 
not,  unbelievers  even  are  more  and  more  willing 
to  concede.  Nor  are  they  slow  to  express  their 
admiration  of  the  strength  and  majesty  of  this 
single  power  amid  the  Christian  nations,  which 
reaches  back  to  the  great  civilizations  that  have 
perished,  which  has  preserved  its  organic  unity 
intact  amid  the  social  revolutions  of  two  thous- 
and years,  and  which  is  acknowledged  still  to  be 
the  greatest  moral  force  in  the  world.  But,  un- 
derlying all  they  say  and  think,  is  the  assump- 
tion that  the  foundations  of  this  noble  structure 


202       MEAA'S  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

are  crumbling;  that  the  world  of  faith  and 
thought  in  which  it  was  upbuilt  is  become  a 
desert  where  no  flower  blooms,  no  living  soul  is 
found ;  that  the  temple  is  beautiful  only  as  a 
ruin  is  beautiful,  where  owls  hoot  and  bats  flit  to 
and  fro.  "  There  is  not  a  creed,  we  arc  told, 
which  is  not  shaken,  nor  an  accredited  dogma 
which  is  not  shown  to  be  questionable  ;  not  a 
received  tradition  which  does  not  threaten  to 
dissolve." 

The  conquests  of  the  human  mind  in  the 
realms  of  nature  have  produced  a  world-wide 
ferment  of  thought,  an  intellectual  activity  which 
is  without  a  parallel.  They  have  increased  the 
power  of  man  to  an  almost  incredible  degree, 
have  given  him  control  of  the  earth  and  the 
seas,  have  placed  within  his  grasp  undreamed- 
of forces,  have  opened  to  his  view  unsuspected 
mysteries ;  they  have  placed  him  on  a  new 
earth  and  under  new  heavens,  and  thrown  a 
light  never  seen  before  upon  the  history  of  his 
race.  As  a  part  of  this  vast  development  new 
questions  have  risen,  new  theories  have  been 
broached,  new  doubts  have  suggested  them- 
selves ;  and  because  we  have  changed,  all  else 
seems  to  have  changed  also.  And  since,  under- 
lying all  questions,  there  is  found  a  question  of 
religion,  the  discussion  of  religious  and  philo- 
sophic problems  has,  in  our  day,  become  a 
social   necessity,   and    the  science    of  criticism, 


THE   HIGHER  EDUCATION.  203 

together  with  the  physical  sciences,  has  driven 
the  disputants  upon  new  and  difficult  ground, 
where  the  battle  must  be  fought,  and  where 
retreat  is  not  possible. 

As  well  imagine  that  society  will  again  take 
on  the  form  of  feudalism,  as  that  the  human 
mind  will  return  to  the  point  of  view  from  which 
our  ancestors  looked  on  nature. 

And  this  world-view  shapes  and  colors  all 
our  thinking,  in  theology  as  in  other  sciences, 
so  that  truths  which  were  latent  have  come  to 
light,  and  principles  which  have  long  been  held 
find  new  and  wider  application. 

Never  has  the  defence  of  religion  required  so 
many  and  such  excellent  qualities  of  intellect 
as  in  the  present  day.  The  early  apologists 
who  contrasted  the  sublimity  and  purity  of 
Christian  faith  with  a  corrupt  paganism  had  not 
a  difficult  task.  In  the  Middle  Age  the  intellect 
of  the  world  was  on  the  side  of  Christ.  The 
controversy  which  sprang  up  with  the  advent 
of  Protestantism  was  biblical  and  historical, 
and  its  criticism  was  superficial.  The  anti- 
Christian  schools  of  thought  of  the  eighteenth 
century  were  literary  rather  than  philosophical, 
and  the  objections  they  urged  were  founded 
chiefly  upon  political  and  social  considerations. 
In  all  these  discussions  the  territory  in  dispute 
was  well  defined  and  relatively  small.     But  into 


204      MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

what  a  different  world  are  not  we  thrown ! 
These  earlier  explorers  sailed  upon  rivers  whose 
banks  were  lined  by  firm-set  rocky  cliffs,  by  the 
overshadowing  boughs  of  primeval  forests,  with 
here  and  there  pleasant  slopes  of  green  where 
they  might  lie  at  rest  amid  the  fragrance  ot 
wild  flowers ;  but  from  our  Peter's  bark  we  look 
out  upon  the  dark  unfathomed  seas  towards  an 
unknown  world  whose  margin  ever  fades  and 
recedes  as  we  seem  to  draw  near  the  haven  of 
our  desire. 

As  in  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century 
the  cry,  "  God  wills  it !  "  rang  through  Europe, 
and  from  all  her  lands  armies  of  mailed  knights 
sprang  into  battle-array  and  turned  their  faces 
towards  the  Holy  City,  resolved  to  wrench  from 
infidel  hands  the  Sacred  Tomb  of  Christ,  so 
now,  from  her  thousand  watch-towers,  science 
sounds  her  clarion  note  with  quite  other  intent, 
urging  on  to  the  attack  of  the  citadel  of  God  in 
the  heart  of  man,  renewing  upon  lower  fields 
the  war  in  which  immortal  spirits  contended 
with  the  Almighty  "  in  dubious  battle  on  the 
plains  of  heaven,  and  shook  his  throne."  As  "  he 
jests  at  scars  that  never  felt  a  wound,"  so  here 
the  lesser  knowledge  makes  the  bolder  man. 
Not  that  difficulties  should  create  doubts,  or 
that  objections  may  not  be  answered,  or  that 
it  is  necessary  to   refute  each  hypothesis  that 


THE  HIGHER  EDUCATION.  205 

appears  and  fades  like  a  dissolving  view,  or  to 
notice  each  unwarrantable  inference  from  un- 
questioned facts,  or  that  it  is  worth  while  to 
address  ourselves  to  minds  whose  nebulous  and 
shifting  opinions  make  it  impossible  that  they 
should  receive  correct  impressions  ;  but  the 
field  upon  which  attacks  upon  religion  are  now 
made  is  so  vast,  the  confusion  of  thought  into 
which  new  discoveries  and  speculations  have 
thrown  the  minds  of  even  educated  men  is  so 
bewildering,  the  methods  for  the  ascertainment 
of  truth  are  so  tangled  and  misapplied,  the  rush- 
ing on  of  multitudes  to  discuss  problems  which 
have  hitherto  been  left  to  philosophers,  and 
which  they  alone  can  rightly  enunciate,  is  so 
stupefying,  that  those  who  have  the  clearest 
perception  of  the  mental  state  of  the  modern 
world,  and  who  are  able  to  take  the  finest  and 
most  comprehensive  view  of  the  religious,  philo- 
sophic, and  scientific  controversies  of  the  clay, 
seem  loath  to  enter  into  a  struggle  where  the 
ground  continually  changes,  and  where  victory  at 
the  best  is  only  partial,  and  but  leads  to  further 
contest.  It  is  well  to  remember,  also,  that  in 
the  intellectual  arena  to  attack  is  easier  than  to 
defend,  and  any  shallow,  incoherent  talker  or 
writer  can  propose  difficulties  which  the  keenest 
thinker  will  find  great  trouble  to  explain.  Since 
we  and  our  works  fall  to   ruin  and  pass  away, 


206       MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

we  seem  instinctively  to  take  the  side  of  those 
who  seek  to  undermine  and  overthrow  systems 
of  thought  and  belief  which  claim  to  be  inde- 
structible, and  the  human  heart  is  half  a  traitor 
to  the  Church  which  declares  that  she  is  inde- 
fectible and  infallible.  Is  there  not  indeed, 
however  we  account  for  it,  in  all  nature  a  kind 
of  dread  and  horror  of  the  supernatural,  such 
as  one  who  hides  within  his  bosom  a  secret  of 
dark  guilt  feels  in  the  presence  of  the  con- 
science of  mankind?  And  does  not  this  make 
the  world  lean  to  the  side  of  those  who  would 
eliminate  God  from  nature? 

And  yet,  since  man's  heart  is  the  home  of 
contradictions,  is  it  not  also  true  to  say  that  he 
is  naturally  religious?  His  faith  in  God  is  as 
deep  and  unwavering  as  his  faith  in  the  testi- 
mony of  the  senses ;  and  if  there  are  atheists 
there  are  also  men  who  hold  that  all  things  are 
unreal  and  only  appear  to  be ;  that  the  world 
is  but  a  myriad-formed,  a  myriad-tinted  idea, 
the  dream  of  a  substanceless  dreamer.  Not 
only  do  we  believe  in  God  and  in  the  soul,  but 
all  that  we  love,  all  that  we  hope  for,  all  that 
gives  to  life  charm,  dignity,  and  sacrcdness,  is 
interpenetrated,  perfumed,  and  illumined  by  this 
faith.  If  men  could  be  persuaded  that  the 
unconscious  is  the  beginning  and  the  end  of 
all  things,  what  good  would  have   been  gained? 


THE  HIGHER  EDUCATION.  20J 

The  light  of  heaven  would  fade  away,  and  the 
soul's  high  faith  be  made  a  lie ;  the  poor  would 
have  no  friend,  and  the  rich  no  heart ;  the  wicked 
would  be  without  fear,  and  the  good  without 
hope ;  success  would  be  consecrated,  and  death 
alone  would  remain  as  the  refuge  of  the  unfor- 
tunate. Even  animal  indulgence,  in  sinking  out 
of  the  moral  order,  would  lose  its  human  charm. 
If  then  in  our  day  there  is  wide-spread  scepti- 
cism, a  sort  of  vague  feeling  that  science  is 
undermining  religion  and  that  the  most  sacred 
beliefs  are  dissolving,  the  cause  of  this  lies  not 
so  much  in  the  natural  tendencies  of  the  mind 
and  heart,  as  in  social  conditions,  in  passing 
phases  of  thought,  in  the  shifting  of  the  point  of 
view  from  which  men  have  hitherto  been  accus- 
tomed to  look  on  nature ;  and  the  continuance 
and  the  progress  of  doubt,  and  consequently  of 
indifference,  is,  to  some  extent  at  least,  to  be 
ascribed  also  to  the  fact  that  the  most  earnest 
believers  in  God  and  in  Christianity  have,  for 
now  more  than  a  century,  been  less  eager  to 
acquire  the  best  philosophic  and  literary  culti- 
vation of  mind  than  others  who,  having  lost 
faith  in  the  supernatural,  seek  for  compensation 
in  a  wider  and  deeper  knowledge  of  nature,  and 
in  the  mental  culture  which  enables  them  to 
enjoy  more  keenly  the  high  thoughts  and  fair 
images  which  live  in  literature  and  art.     As  a 


208      MEANS  AND   ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

well-trained  intellect,  in  argument  with  the  un- 
skilful, easily  makes  the  worse  appear  the  better 
cause,  so  in  an  age  or  a  country  where  the  best 
discipline  of  mind  is  found  chiefly  among  those 
who  are  not  Christians,  or  at  least  not  Catholics, 
public  opinion  will  drift  away  from  the  Church, 
until  the  view  finally  becomes  general  that,  what- 
ever she  may  have  been  in  other  times,  her  day 
is  past.  Nor  will  aught  external,  however  fair 
or  glorious,  secure  her  against  this  danger. 
How  often  in  the  history  of  nations  and  of  reli- 
gions is  not  outward  splendor  the  mark  of  inward 
decay?  When  Rome  was  free,  a  simple  life 
sufficed;  but  when  liberty  fled,  marble  palaces 
arose.  The  monarch  who  built  Versailles  made 
the  scaffold  on  which  French  royalty  perished ; 
and  so  a  dying  faith,  like  the  setting  sun,  may 
drape  itself  in  glory.  The  Kingdom  of  God  is 
within  ;  there  is  the  source  of  life  and  strength, 
without  which  nor  numbers  nor  wealth,  nor 
stately  edifices  nor  solemn  rites,  avail.  Nor  can 
we  be  certain  of  men's  love  when  we  cease  to 
have  influence  over  their  thoughts.  The  proper 
appeal  is  to  the  heart  through  the  mind  ;  and 
even  a  mother  loses  half  her  power  when  she 
ceases  to  be  the  intellectual  superior  of  her  chil- 
dren. How  then  shall  the  heavenly  Mother  of 
the  soul  keep  her  place  in  the  world,  if  those 
who  speak  in  her  name  mar  by  imperfect  and 


THE  HIGHER  EDUCATION.  20Q 

ignorant  utterance  the  celestial  harmony  of  her 
doctrines? 

Ah !  let  us  learn  to  see  things  as  they  are. 
In  face  of  the  modern  world,  that  which  the 
Catholic  priest  most  needs,  after  virtue,  is  the 
best  cultivation  of  mind,  which  issues  in  compre- 
hensiveness of  view,  in  exactness  of  perception, 
in  the  clear  discernment  of  the  relations  of  truths 
and  of  the  limitations  of  scientific  knowledge,  in 
fairness  and  flexibility  of  thought,  in  ease  and 
grace  of  expression,  in  candor,  in  reasonable- 
ness ;  the  intellectual  culture  which  brings  the 
mind  into  form  gives  it  the  control  of  its  facul- 
ties, creates  the  habit  of  attention,  and  develops 
firmness  of  grasp.  The  education  of  which  I 
speak  is  expansion  and  discipline  of  mind  rather 
than  learning;  and  its  tendency  is  not  so  much 
to  form  profound  dogmatists,  or  erudite  canon- 
ists, or  acute  casuists,  as  to  cultivate  a  habit  of 
mind,  which,  for  want  of  a  better  word,  may  be 
called  philosophical;  to  enlarge  the  intellect,  to 
strengthen  and  supple  its  faculties,  to  enable  it 
to  take  connected  views  of  things  and  their 
relations,  and  to  see  clear  amid  the  mazes  of 
human  error  and  through  the  mists  of  human 
passion.  I  speak  of  that  perfection  of  the  intel- 
lect, which,  to  use  the  words  of  Cardinal  New- 
man, "  is  the  clear,  calm,  accurate  vision  and 
comprehension  of  all  things  as  far  as  the  finite 

14 


2IO      MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

mind  can  embrace  them,  each  in  its  place  and 
with  its  own  characteristics  upon  it.  It  is 
almost  prophetic  from  its  knowledge  of  history; 
it  is  almost  heart-searching  from  its  knowledge 
of  human  nature;  it  has  almost  supernatural 
charity  from  its  freedom  from  littleness  a"nd 
prejudice ;  it  has  almost  the  repose  of  faith 
because  nothing  can  startle  it;  it  has  almost  the 
beauty  and  harmony  of  heavenly  contemplation, 
so  intimate  is  it  with  the  eternal  order  of  things 
and  the  music  of  the  spheres."  This  is,  indeed, 
ideal ;  but  they  who  believe  not  in  ideals  were 
not  born  to  know  the  real  worth  of  things : 

"  Spite  of  proudest  boast 
Reason,  best  reason  is  to  imperfect  man 
An  effort  only  and  a  noble  aim,  — 
A  crown,  an  attribute  of  sovereign  power, 
Still  to  be  courted,  never  to  be  won." 

It  is  plain  that  education  of  this  kind  aims  at 
something  quite  different  from  the  mere  impart- 
ing of  useful  knowledge.  It  takes  the  view  that 
it  is  good  to  know,  even  though  knowledge 
should  not  be  a  means  to  wealth  or  power  or 
any  other  common  aim  of  life.  It  regards  the 
mind  as  the  organ  of  truth,  and  trains  it  for  its 
own  sake,  without  reference  to  the  exercise  of  a 
profession.  Hence  its  distinguishing  charac- 
teristic is  that  it  is  liberal  and  not  professional 


THE  HIGHER  EDUCATION.  211 

It  holds  cultivated  faculties  in  higher  esteem 
than  learning,  and  it  makes  use  of  knowledge  to 
improve  the  intellect,  rather  than  of  the  intellect 
to  acquire  knowledge.  Hence,  one  may  be  a 
skilful  physician,  a  judicious  lawyer,  a  learned 
theologian,  and  yet  be  greatly  lacking  in  mental 
culture.  It  is  a  common  experience  to  find 
that  professional  men  are  apt  to  be  narrow  and 
one-sided.  Their  mind,  like  the  dyer's  hand,  is 
subdued  to  what  it  works  in.  They  want  com- 
prehensiveness of  view,  flexibility  of  thought, 
openness  to  light,  and  freedom  of  mental  play, 
They  think  in  grooves,  make  the  rules  of  their 
art  the  measure  of  truth,  and  their  own  methods 
of  inquiry  the  only  valid  laws  of  reasoning. 
These  same  defects  may  be  observed  in  those 
who  are  given  exclusively  to  the  study  of  phy- 
sical science.  When  they  sweep  the  heavens 
with  the  telescope  and  do  not  find  God,  they 
conclude  that  there  is  no  God.  When  the  soul 
does  not  reveal  itself  under  the  microscope, 
they  argue  it  does  not  exist;  and  since  there  is 
no  thought  without  nervous  movement,  they 
claim  that  the  brain  thinks. 

Now,  if  it  is  desirable  that  those  who  are 
charged  with  the  teaching  and  defence  of  divine 
truth  should  be  free  from  this  narrowness  and 
one-sidedness,  this  lack  of  openness  to  light  and 
freedom   of  mental  play,  the  education  of  the 


212       MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

priest  must  be  more  than  a  professional  educa- 
tion;  and  he  must  be  sent  to  a  school  higher 
and  broader  than  the  ecclesiastical  seminary, 
which  is  simply  a  training  college  for  the  prac- 
tical work  of  the  ministry.  The  purpose  for 
which  it  was  instituted  is  to  prepare  young  men 
for  the  worthy  exercise  of  the  general  functions 
of  the  priestly  office,  and  the  good  it  has  done 
is  too  great  and  too  manifest  to  need  commen- 
dation. But  the  ecclesiastical  seminary  is  not 
a  school  of  intellectual  culture,  either  here  in 
America  or  elsewhere,  and  to  imagine  that  it 
can  become  the  instrument  of  intellectual  cul- 
ture is  to  cherish  a  delusion.  It  must  impart  a 
certain  amount  of  professional  knowledge,  fit  its 
students  to  become  more  or  less  expert  cate- 
chists,  rubricists,  and  casuists,  and  its  aim  is  to 
do  this ;  and  whatever  mental  improvement,  if 
any,  thence  results,  is  accidental.  Hence  its 
methods  are  not  such  as  one  would  choose  who 
desires  to  open  the  mind,  to  give  it  breadth, 
flexibility,  strength,  refinement,  and  grace.  Its 
text-books  are  written  often  in  a  barbarous  style, 
the  subjects  are  discussed  in  a  dry  and  mechani- 
cal way,  and  the  professor,  wholly  intent  upon 
giving  instruction,  is  frequently  indifferent  as  to 
the  manner  in  which  it  is  imparted  ;  or  else  not 
possessing  himself  a  really  cultivated  intellect, 
he  holds  in  slight  esteem  expansion  and  refine- 


THE   HIGHER  EDUCATION.  21  3 

merit  of  mind,  looking  upon  it  as  at  the  best  a 
mere  ornament.  I  am  not  offering  a  criticism 
upon  the  ecclesiastical  seminary,  but  am  simply- 
pointing  to  the  plain  fact  that  it  is  not  a  school 
of  intellectual  culture,  and  consequently,  if  its 
course  were  lengthened  to  five,  to  six,  to  eight, 
to  ten  years,  its  students  would  go  forth  to  their 
work  with  a  more  thorough  professional  training, 
but  not  with  more  really  cultivated  minds.  The 
test  of  intellect  is  not  so  much  what  we  know  as 
the  manner  in  which  it  is  known ;  just  as  in  the 
moral  world,  the  important  consideration  is  not 
what  virtues  we  possess,  but  the  completeness 
with  which  they  are  ours.  He  who  really 
believes  in  God,  serves  Him,  loves  Him,  is  a 
hero,  a  saint ;  whereas  he  who  half  believes  may 
have  a  thousand  good  qualities,  but  not  a  great 
character.  Knowledge  is  not  education  any 
more  than  food  is  nutrition;  and  as  one  may 
eat  voraciously,  and  yet  remain  without  bodily 
health  or  strength,  so  one  may  have  great  learn- 
ing, and  yet  be  almost  wholly  lacking  in  intellec- 
tual cultivation.  His  learning  may  only  oppress 
and  confuse  him,  be  felt  as  a  load,  and  not  as  a 
vital  principle,  which  upraises,  illumines,  and 
beautifies  the  mind;  mentally  he  may  still  be  a 
boy,  in  whom  memory  predominates,  and  whose 
intellect  is  only  a  receptacle  of  facts.  Memory 
is  the  least  noble  of  the  intellectual  faculties,  and 


214      MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

the  nearest  to  animal  intelligence  ;  and  to  know 
well  is,  in  the  eyes  of  a  true  educator,  of  quite 
other  importance  than  to  know  much.  But  a 
memory,  more  or  less  well-stored,  is  nearly  all  a 
youth  carries  with  him  from  the  college  to  the 
seminary,  and  here  he  enters,  as  I  have  already 
pointed  out,  upon  a  course  not  of  intellectual 
discipline,  but  of  professional  studies,  whose 
object  is  not  "  to  open  the  mind,  to  correct  it, 
to  refine  it,  to  enable  it  to  know,  and  to  digest, 
master,  rule,  and  use  its  knowledge,  to  give  it 
power  over  its  own  faculties,  application,  flexi- 
bility, method,  critical  exactness,  sagacity,  re- 
source, eloquent  expression,"  but  simply  to 
impart  the  requisite  skill  for  the  ordinary  exer- 
cise of  the  holy  ministry.  Hence  it  is  not  sur- 
prising that  priests  who  are  zealous,  earnest, 
self-sacrificing,  who  to  piety  join  discretion  and 
good  sense,  rarely  possess  the  intellectual  cul- 
ture of  which  I  am  speaking,  for  the  simple 
reason  that  a  university  and  not  a  seminary  is 
the  school  in  which  this  kind  of  education  is 
received.  That  the  absence  of  such  trained 
intellects  is  a  most  serious  obstacle  to  the  pro- 
gress of  the  Catholic  faith,  no  thoughtful  man 
will  doubt  or  deny.  Since  the  mind  is  a  power, 
in  religion,  as  in  every  sphere  of  thought  and 
life,  the  discipline  which  best  develops  and  per- 
fects its  faculties  will  fit  it  to  do  its  work,  what- 


THE  HIGHER   EDUCATION.  21  5 

ever  it  may  be,  in  the  most  effective  manner. 
Hence,  though  the  education  of  which  I  speak 
does  not  directly  aim  at  being  useful,  it  is  in  fact 
the  most  useful,  and  prepares  better  than  any 
other  for  the  business  of  life.  It  enables  a  man 
to  master  a  subject  with  ease,  to  fill  an  office 
with  honor ;  and  whatever  he  does,  the  mark  of 
completeness  and  finish  will  be  found  upon  his 
work.  He  sees  more  clearly,  judges  more 
calmly,  reasons  more  pertinently,  speaks  more 
seasonably  than  other  men.  The  free  and  full 
possession  of  his  faculties  gives  him  power  to 
turn  himself  to  whatever  may  be  demanded  of 
him,  whether  it  be  to  govern  wisely,  or  to  coun- 
sel judiciously,  or  to  write  gracefully,  or  to 
plead  eloquently.  Whatever  course  in  life  he 
may  take,  whatever  line  of  thought  or  investiga- 
tion he  may  pursue,  his  intellectual  culture  will 
give  him  superiority  over  men  who,  with  equal 
or  greater  talents,  lack  his  education ;  and  he 
possesses  withal  resources  within  himself,  which 
in  a  measure  make  him  independent  of  fortune, 
and  which,  when  failure  comes  and  the  world 
abandons  him,  remain,  like  faith,  or  hope,  or  a 
friend,  to  make  him  forget  his  misfortunes. 

Of  the  English  universities,  with  all  their 
shortcomings,  Cardinal  Newman  says:  "At 
least  they  can  boast  of  a  succession  of  heroes 
and  statesmen,  of  literary  men  and  philosophers, 


2l6      MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

of  men  conspicuous  for  great  natural  virtues, 
for  habits  of  business,  for  knowledge  of  life,  for 
practical  judgment,  for  cultivated  tastes,  for 
accomplishments,  who  have  made  England  what 
it  is,  —  able  to  subdue  the  earth,  able  to  domi- 
neer over  Catholics."  It  is  only  in  a  university 
that  all  the  sciences  are  brought  together,  their 
relations  adjusted,  their  provinces  assigned. 
There  natural  science  is  limited  by  metaphysics; 
morality  is  studied  in  the  light  of  history  ;  lan- 
guage and  literature  are  viewed  from  the  stand- 
point of  ethnology ;  the  criticism  which  seeks 
beauty  and  not  deformity,  which  in  the  gardens 
of  the  mind  takes  the  honey  and  leaves  the 
poison,  is  applied  to  the  study  of  eloquence  and 
poetry ;  and  over  all  religion  throws  the  warmth 
and  life  of  faith  and  hope,  like  a  ray  from  heaven. 
The  mind  thus  lives  in  an  atmosphere  in  which 
the  comparison  of  ideas  and  truths  with  one 
an  other  is  inevitable  ;  and  so  it  grows,  is  strength- 
ened, enlarged,  refined,  made  pliant,  candid, 
open,  equitable. 

When  numbers  of  priests  will  be  able  to  bring 
this  cultivation  of  intellect  to  the  treatment  of 
religious  subjects,  then  will  Catholic  theology 
again  come  forth  from  its  isolation  in  the 
modern  world;  then  will  Catholic  truth  again 
irradiate  and  perfume  the  thoughts  and  opinions 
of  men;   then  will  Catholic  doctrines  again  sink 


THE  HIGHER  EDUCATION.  2\y 

into  their  hearts,  and  not  remain  loose  in  the 
mind  to  be  thrown  aside,  as  one  casts  away  the 
outworn  vesture  of  the  body;  then  will  it  be 
felt  that  the  fascination  of  Christian  faith  is  still 
fresh,  supreme,  as  far  above  the  charm  of 
science  as  the  joy  of  a  poet's  soul  is  above  the 
pleasures  of  sense.  The  religious  view  of  life 
must  forever  remain  the  true  view,  since  no 
other  explains  our  longings  ana  aspirations,  or 
justifies  hope  and  enthusiasm;  and  the  worship 
of  God  in  spirit  and  in  truth,  which  Christ  has 
revealed  to  the  world,  the  religion  not  of  an  age 
or  a  people,  but  of  all  time  and  of  the  human 
race,  must  eternally  prevail  when  brought  home 
to  us  in  a  language  which  we  understand;  for 
we  place  the  testimony  of  reason  above  that  of 
the  senses.  To  the  eye  the  sun  rises  and  sets, 
to  the  mind  it  is  stationary ;  and  we  accept,  not 
what  is  seen,  but  what  is  known.  Is  there  need 
of  stronger  evidence  that  the  power  within, 
which  is  our  real  self,  is  spiritual?  And  is  it 
not  enough  to  see  clearly,  to  perceive  that  in  the 
struggle  of  mind  with  matter,  which  is  the  essen- 
tial form  of  the  conflict  of  spiritualism  with 
materialism,  of  religion  with  science,  the  soul,  in 
the  end,  will  be  victorious,  and  rest  in  the  real 
world  of  faith  and  intuition,  and  not  in  the 
pictured  world  of  the  senses? 

Religion,     indeed,    like     morality,    is     in     the 


2l8       MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

nature  of  things,  and  Catholic  faith  is  Una's 
Red  Cross  Knight,  on  whose  shield  are  old  dints 
of  deep  wounds  and  cruel  marks  of  many  a 
bloody  field,  who  is  assailed  by  all  the  powers 
of  earth  and  of  the  nether  world,  armed  with 
whatever  weapons  may  hurt  the  mind  or  corrupt 
the  heart,  but  whom  heavenly  Providence  rescues 
from  the  jaws  of  monsters  and  leads  on  to 
victor)-. 

But  what  true  believer  thinks  himself  excused 
from  effort,  because  Christ  has  declared  that 
the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  His 
Church?  Docs  he  not  know  that  though,  when 
we  consider  her  whole  course  through  the  world, 
she  has  triumphed,  so  as  to  have  become  the 
miracle  of  history,  yet  has  she  at  many  points 
suffered  disastrous  defeat?  Hence,  those  who 
love  her  must  be  vigilant,  and  stand  prepared  for 
battle.  And  in  an  age  when  persecution  has 
either  died  away  or  lost  its  harshness,  when  cry- 
ing abuses  have  disappeared,  when  heresy  has 
run  its  course,  and  the  struggle  of  the  world 
with  the  Church  has  become  almost  wholly  in- 
tellectual, it  is  not  possible,  assuredly,  that  her 
ministers  should  have  too  great  power  of  intel- 
lect. And  consequently  it  is  not  possible  that 
the  bishops,  in  whose  hands  the  education  of 
priests  is  placed,  should  have  too  great  a  care 
that  they  receive  the  best  mental   culture.     And 


THE    HIGHER  EDUCATION.  219 

if  this  is  a  general  truth,  with  what  pertinency 
does  it  not  come  home  to  us  here  in  America, 
who  are  the  descendants  of  men  who,  on  account 
of  their  faith,  have  for  centuries  been  oppressed 
and  thrust  back  from  opportunities  of  education, 
and  who,  when  persecution  and  robbery  had 
reduced  them  to  ignorance  and  poverty,  were 
forced  to  hear  their  religion  reproached  with  the 
crimes  of  her  foes?  And  now,  when  at  length  a 
fairer  day  has  dawned  for  us  in  this  new  world, 
what  can  be  more  natural  than  our  eager  desire 
to  move  out  from  the  valleys  of  darkness  towards 
the  hills  and  mountain  tops  that  are  bathed  in 
sunlight?  What  more  praiseworthy  than  the 
fixed  resolve  to  prove  that  not  our  faith,  but 
our  misfortunes  made  and  kept  us  inferior. 
And,  since  we  live  in  the  midst  of  millions  who 
have  indeed  good  will  towards  us,  but  who  still 
bear  the  yoke  of  inherited  prejudices,  and  who, 
because  for  three  hundred  years  real  cultivation 
of  mind  was  denied  to  Catholics  who  spoke 
English,  conclude  that  Protestantism  is  the 
source  of  enlightenment,  and  the  Church  the 
mother  of  ignorance,  do  not  all  generous  im- 
pulses urge  us  to  make  this  reproach  henceforth 
meaningless?  And  in  what  way  shall  we  best 
accomplish  this  task?  Surely  not  by  writing  or 
speaking  about  what  the  influence  of  the  Church 
is,  or  by  pointing  to  what  she  has  done  in  other 


220      MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

ages,  but  by  becoming  what  we  claim  her  spirit 
tends  to  make  us.  Here,  if  anywhere,  the  pro- 
verb is  applicable — verba  movent,  exempla  tra- 
hunt.  As  the  devotion  of  American  Catholics 
to  this  country  and  its  free  institutions,  as 
shown  not  on  battle-fields  alone,  but  in  our 
whole  bearing  and  conduct,  convinces  all  but 
the  unreasonable  of  the  depth  and  sincerity  of 
our  patriotism,  so  when  our  zeal  for  intellectual 
excellence  shall  have  raised  up  men  who  will 
take  place  among  the  first  writers  and  thinkers 
of  their  day  their  very  presence  will  become  the 
most  persuasive  of  arguments  to  teach  the  world 
that  no  best  gift  is  at  war  with  the  spirit  of 
Catholic  faith,  and  that,  while  the  humblest 
mind  may  feel  its  force,  the  lofty  genius  of 
Augustine,  of  Dante,  and  of  Bossuet  is  upborne 
and  strengthened  by  the  splendor  of  its  truth. 
But  if  we  are  to  be  intellectually  the  equals  of 
others,  we  must  have  with  them  equal  advan- 
tages of  education  ;  and  so  long  as  we  look 
rather  to  the  multiplying  of  schools  and  semina- 
ries than  to  the  creation  of  a  real  university, 
our  progress  will  be  slow  and  uncertain,  be- 
cause a  university  is  the  great  ordinary  means 
to  the  best  cultivation  of  mind.  The  fact  that 
the  growth  of  the  Church  here,  like  that  of  the 
country  itself,  is  chiefly  external,  a  growth  in 
wealth     and     in    numbers,    makes    it    the    more 


THE   HIGHER  EDUCATION.  221 

necessary  that  we  bring  the  most  strenuous 
efforts  to  improve  the  gifts  of  the  soul.  The 
whole  tendency  of  our  social  life  insures  the 
increase  of  churches,  convents,  schools,  hospi- 
tals, and  asylums ;  our  advance  in  population 
and  in  wealth  will  be  counted  from  decade 
to  decade  by  millions,  and  our  worship  will 
approach  more  and  more  to  the  pomp  and 
splendor  of  the  full  ritual ;  but  this  very  growth 
makes  such  demands  upon  our  energies,  that  we 
are  in  danger  of  forgetting  higher  things,  or  at 
least  of  thinking  them  less  urgent.  Few  men 
are  at  once  thoughtful  and  active.  The  man  of 
deeds  dwells  in  the  world  around  him ;  the 
thinker  lives  within  his  mind.  Contemplation, 
in  widening  the  view,  makes  us  feel  that  what 
even  the  strongest  can  do  is  lost  in  the  limitless 
expanse  of  space  and  time;  and  the  soul  is 
tempted  to  fall  back  upon  itself  and  to  gaze 
passively  upon  the  course  of  the  world,  as 
though  the  general  stream  of  human  events 
were  as  little  subject  to  man's  control  as  the 
procession  of  the  seasons.  Busy  workers,  on 
the  other  hand,  having  little  taste  or  time  for 
reflection,  see  but  the  present  and  what  lies 
close  to  them,  and  the  energy  of  their  doing 
circumscribes  their  thinking. 

But  the  Church  needs  both  the  men  who  act 
and  the  men  who  think  ;   and  since  with  us  every- 


222       MEANS  AND  ENDS   OF  EDUCATION. 

thing  pushes  to  action,  wisdom  demands  that  we 
cultivate  rather  the  powers  of  reflection.  And 
this  is  the  duty  alike  of  true  patriots  and  of  faith- 
ful Catholics.  All  are  working  to  develop  our 
boundless  material  resources;  let  a  few  at  least 
labor  to  develop  man.  The  millions  are  build- 
ing cities,  reclaiming  wildernesses,  and  bringing 
forth  from  the  earth  its  buried  treasures;  let  at 
least  a  remnant  cherish  the  ideal,  cultivate  the 
beautiful,  and  seek  to  inspire  the  love  of  moral 
and  intellectual  excellence.  And  since  we  be- 
lieve that  the  Church  which  points  to  heaven  is 
able  also  to  lead  the  nations  in  the  way  of  civiliza- 
tion and  of  progress,  why  should  we  not  desire  to 
see  her  become  a  beneficent  and  ennobling  influ- 
ence in  the  public  life  of  our  country?  She  can 
have  no  higher  temporal  mission  than  to  be  the 
friend  of  this  great  republic,  which  is  God's  best 
earthly  gift  to  His  children.  If,  as  English  critics 
complain,  our  style  is  inflated,  it  is  because  we 
feel  the  promise  of  a  destiny  which  transcends 
our  powers  of  expression.  Whatever  fault  men 
may  find  with  us,  let  them  not  doubt  the  world- 
wide significance  of  our  life.  If  we  keep  our- 
selves strong  and  pure,  all  the  peoples  of  the 
earth  shall  yet  be  free;  if  we  fulfil  our  provi- 
dential mission,  national  hatred  shall  give  place 
to  the  spirit  of  generous  rivalry,  the  people  shall 
become  wiser  and  stronger,  society  shall  grow 


THE   HIGHER  EDUCATION:  223 

more  merciful  and  just,  and  the  cry  of  distress 
shall  be  felt,  like  the  throb  of  a  brother's  heart, 
to  the  ends  of  the  world.  Where  is  the  man 
who  does  not  feel  a  kind  of  religious  gratitude 
as  he  looks  upon  the  rise  and  progress  of  this 
nation?  Above  all,  where  is  the  Catholic  whose 
heart  is  not  enlarged  by  such  contemplation? 
Here,  almost  for  the  first  time  in  her  history, 
the  Church  is  really  free.  Her  worldly  position 
does  not  overshadow  her  spiritual  office,  and 
the  State  recognizes  her  autonomy.  The  monu- 
ments of  her  past  glory,  wrenched  from  her 
control,  stand  not  here  to  point,  like  mocking 
fingers,  to  what  she  has  lost.  She  renews  her 
youth,  and  lifts  her  brow,  as  one  who,  not 
unmindful  of  the  solemn  mighty  past,  yet  looks 
with  undimmed  eye  and  unfaltering  heart  to  a 
still  more  glorious  future.  Who  in  such  a  pre- 
sence, can  abate  hope,  or  give  heed  to  despond- 
ent counsel,  or  send  regretful  thoughts  to  other 
days  and  lands?  Whoever  at  any  time,  in  any 
place,  might  have  been  sage,  saint,  or  hero,  may 
be  so  here  and  now;  and  though  he  had  the 
heart  of  Francis,  and  the  mind  of  Augustine, 
and  the  courage  of  Hildebrand,  here  is  work 
for  him  to  do. 

In  whatsoever  direction  we  turn  our  thoughts, 
arguments  rush  in  to  show  the  pressing  need  for 
us  of  a  centre  of  life  and  light  such  as  a  Catholic 


224      MEAN'S  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

university  would  be.  Without  this  we  can  have 
no  hope  of  entering  as  a  determining  force  into 
the  living  controversies  of  the  age  ;  without  this 
it  must  be  an  accident  if  we  are  represented  at 
all  in  the  literature  of  our  country;  without  this 
we  shall  lack  a  point  of  union  to  gather  up, 
harmonize,  and  intensify  our  scattered  forces; 
without  this  our  bishops  must  remain  separated, 
and  continue  to  work  in  random  ways ;  without 
this  the  noblest  souls  will  look  in  vain  for  some- 
thing larger  and  broader  than  a  local  charity  to 
make  appeal  to  their  generous  hearts;  without 
this  we  shall  be  able  to  offer  but  feeble  resistance 
to  the  false  theories  and  systems  of  education 
which  deny  to  the  Church  a  place  in  the  school ; 
without  this  the  sons  of  wealthy  Catholics  will, 
in  ever  increasing  numbers,  be  sent  to  institu- 
tions where  their  faith  is  undermined ;  without 
this  we  shall  vainly  hope  for  such  treatment  of 
religious  questions  and  their  relations  to  the 
issues  and  needs  of  the  day,  as  shall  arrest  pub- 
lic attention  and  induce  Catholics  themselves  to 
take  at  least  some  little  notice  of  the  writings  of 
Catholics;  without  this  in  struggles  for  reform 
and  contests  for  rights  we  shall  lack  the  wisdom 
of  best  counsel  and  the  courage  which  skilful 
leaders  inspire.  We  are  a  small  minority  in  the 
presence  of  a  vast  majority;  we  still  bear  the 
disfigurements  and   weaknesses  of  centuries  of 


THE   HIGHER  EDUCATION  225 

persecution  and  suffering ;  we  cling  to  an  ancient 
faith  in  an  age  when  new  sciences,  discoveries, 
and  theories  fascinate  the  minds  of  men,  and 
turn  their  thoughts  away  from  the  past  to  the 
future;  we  preach  a  spiritual  religion  to  a  peo- 
ple whose  prodigious  wealth  and  rapid  triumphs 
over  nature  have  caused  them  to  exaggerate 
the  value  of  material  progress ;  we  teach  the 
duty  of  self-denial  to  a  refined  and  intellectual 
generation,  who  regard  whatever  is  painful  as 
evil,  whatever  is  difficult  as  omissible ;  we  insist 
upon  religious  obedience  to  the  Church  in  face 
of  a  society  where  children  are  ceasing  to  rever- 
ence and  obey  even  their  parents;  — if  in  spite 
of  all  this  we  are  to  hold  our  own,  not  to  speak 
of  larger  hopes,  it  is  plain  that  we  may  neglect 
nothing  which  will  help  us  to  put  forth  our  full 
strength. 

I  do  not,  of  course,  pretend  that  this  higher 
education  is  all  that  we  need,  or  that,  of  itself, 
it  is  sufficient;  but  what  I  claim  is  that  it  would 
be  a  source  of  strength  for  us  who  are  in  want 
of  help.  God  works  in  many  ways,  through 
many  agencies,  and  I  bow  in  homage  to  the 
humblest  effort  in  a  righteous  cause  of  the  low- 
liest human  being.  There  are  diversities  of 
graces,  but  the  same  spirit;  diversities  of  min- 
istries, but  the  same  Lord.  Numquid  omnes 
doctores  ?  asks  St.  Paul.  But  since  he  places 
'5 


226      MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

teachers  by  the  side  of  apostles  and  prophets, 
surely  they  will  teach  to  best  purpose  who  to 
the  humility  of  faith  add  the  luminousness  of 
knowledge.  To  those  who  reject  the  idea  of 
human  co-operation  in  things  divine  I  speak 
not ;  but  we  who  believe  that  we  are  co-opera- 
tors with  Christ  cannot  think  that  it  is  possible 
to  bring  to  this  godlike  work  either  too  great 
preparation  of  heart  or  too  great  cultivation  of 
mind.  Nor  must  wc  think  lightly  even  of  refine- 
ment of  thought  and  speech  and  behavior,  for 
we  know  that  manners  come  of  morals,  and  that 
morals  in  turn  are  born  of  manners,  as  the  ocean 
breathes  forth  the  clouds  and  the  clouds  fill  the 
ocean. 

Let  there  be  then  an  American  Catholic  uni- 
versity, where  our  young  men,  in  the  atmos- 
phere of  faith  and  purity,  of  high  thinking  and 
plain  living,  shall  become  more  intimately  con- 
scious of  the  truth  of  their  religion  and  of  the 
genius  of  their  country;  where  they  shall  learn 
the  repose  and  dignity  which  belong  to  their 
ancient  Catholic  descent,  and  yet  not  lose  the 
fire  which  glows  in  the  blood  of  a  new  people; 
to  which  from  every  part  of  the  land  our  eyes 
may  turn  for  guidance  and  encouragement, 
seeking  light  and  self-confidence  from  men  in 
whom  intellectual  power  is  not  separate  from 
mural  purpose,  who  look  to  God  and   His   uni- 


THE  HIGHER   EDUCATION.  227 

verse    from    bending    knees    of    prayer,    who 
uphold  — 

"The  cause  of  Christ  and  civil  liberty 
As  one,  and  moving  to  one  glorious  end." 

Should  such  an  intellectual  centre  serve  no 
other  purpose  than  to  bring  together  a  number 
of  eager-hearted,  truth-loving  youths,  what  light 
and  heat  would  not  leap  forth  from  the  shock 
of  mind  with  mind ;  what  generous  rivalries 
would  not  spring  up ;  what  intellectual  sym- 
pathies, resting  on  the  breast  of  faith,  would 
not  become  manifest,  grouping  souls  like  atoms, 
to  form  the  substance  and  beauty  of  a  world? 

O  solemn  groves  that  lie  close  to  Louvain 
and  to  Freiburg,  whose  air  is  balm  and  whose 
murmuring  winds  sound  like  the  voices  of  saints 
and  sages  whispering  down  the  galleries  of  time, 
what  words  have  ye  not  heard  bursting  forth 
from  the  strong  hearts  of  keen-witted  youths, 
who,  Titan-like,  believed  they  might  storm  the 
citadel  of  God's  truth !  How  many  a  one, 
heavy  and  despondent,  in  the  narrow,  lonesome 
path  of  duty,  has  remembered  you,  and  moved 
again  in  unseen  worlds,  upheld  by  faith  and 
hope  !  Who  has  listened  to  the  words  of  your 
teachers  and  not  felt  the  truth  of  the  saying  of 
Pope  Pius  II.,  —  that  the  world  holds  nothing 
more  precious  or  more  beautiful  than  a  culti- 


228       MEANS  AND   ENDS   OF  EDUCATION. 

vated  intellect?  The  presence  of  such  men 
invigorates  like  mountain  air,  and  their  speech 
is  as  refreshing  as  clear-flowing  fountains.  To 
know  them  is  to  be  forever  their  debtor.  The 
company  of  a  saint  is  the  school  of  saints ;  a 
strong  character  develops  strength  in  others, 
and  a  noble  mind  makes  all  around  him 
luminous. 

Why  may  not  eight  million  Catholics  upbuild 
a  home  for  great  teachers,  for  men  who,  to  real 
learning  and  cultivation  of  mind,  shall  add  the 
persuasiveness  of  easy  and  eloquent  diction; 
whose  manifest  and  indisputable  superiority 
shall  put  to  shame  the  self-conceit  of  American 
young  men,  our  most  familiar  intellectual  bane, 
and  an  insuperable  obstacle  to  all  improvement, 
—  self-conceit,  which  is  the  beatitude  of  vulgar 
characters  and  shallow  minds?  If  our  students 
should  find  in  such  an  institution  but  one  man, 
who,  like  Socrates,  with  ironic  questioning 
might  make  for  them  the  discovery  of  the  new 
world  of  their  own  ignorance,  the  gain  would 
be  great  enough. 

Why  may  we  not  have  a  centre  of  light  and 
truth  which  will  raise  up  before  us  standards  of 
intellectual  excellence ;  which  will  enable  us  to 
see  that  our  so-called  educated  men  arc  as  far 
from  being  scholars  as  the  makers  of  our  horri- 
ble show-bills  are  from  being  artists;  which  will 


THE   HIGHER  EDUCATION.  229 

teach  us  that  it  is  not  only  false  but  vulgar  to 
call  things  by  pretentious  names,  —  as,  for  in- 
stance, to  call  a  politician  a  statesman,  a 
declaimer  an  orator,  or  a  Latin  school  a 
university. 

Ah !  surely  as  to  whether  an  American  Catho- 
lic university  is  desirable  there  cannot  be  two 
opinions  among  enlightened  men.  But  is  it 
feasible?  A  true  university  is  one  of  the  noblest 
foundations  of  the  great  Catholic  ages,  when 
faith  rose  almost  to  the  height  of  creative  power, 
and  it  were  folly  in  me  to  maintain  that  such 
an  undertaking  is  not  surrounded  by  many  and 
great  difficulties.  To  begin  with  the  material 
for  foundation,  money  is  necessary,  and  this,  I 
am  persuaded,  we  may  have.  A  noble  cause 
will  find  or  make  generous  hearts.  Men  above 
all  we  need,  for  every  kind  of  existence  propa- 
gates itself  only  by  itself.  But  let  us  bear  in 
mind  that  the  best  teacher  is  not  necessarily  or 
often  he  who  knows  the  most,  but  he  who  has 
most  power  to  determine  the  student  to  self- 
activity;  for  in  the  end  the  mind  educates  itself. 
As  distrust  is  the  mark  of  a  narrow  intellect  or 
a  bad  heart,  so  a  readiness  to  believe  in  the 
ability  of  others  is  not  only  a  characteristic  of 
able  men,  but  it  is  also  the  secret  charm  which 
calls  around  them  helpers  and  followers.  Hence, 
a  strong   man   who   loves  his  work   is  a   better 


230      MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

educator  than  a  half-hearted  professor  who  car- 
ries whole  libraries  in  his  head. 

To  bring  together  in  familiar  and  daily  life  a 
number  of  young  men,  chosen  for  the  bright- 
ness of  their  minds  and  an  eager  yearning  for 
knowledge,  is  to  create  an  atmosphere  of  intel- 
lectual warmth  and  light,  which  invigorates  and 
inspires  the  master,  while  it  stimulates  his  disci- 
ples. In  such  company  it  will  not  be  difficult 
to  form  teachers.  But  will  it  be  possible  to  find 
young  men  who  will  consent,  when  after  years 
of  study  they  have  finally  reached  the  priest- 
hood, to  continue  in  a  higher  institution  the 
arduous  and  confining  labors  to  the  end  of  which 
they  have  looked  as  to  the  beginning  of  a  new 
life?  In  other  lands  such  students  are  found, 
and  if  with  us  there  is  a  tendency  to  rush  with 
precipitancy  and  insufficient  preparation  to  what- 
ever work  we  may  have  chosen,  this  is  but  a 
proof  of  the  need  of  special  efforts  to  restrain 
an  ardor  which  springs  from  weakness  and  not 
from  strength.  Haste  is  a  mark  of  immaturity. 
He  who  is  certain  of  himself  and  master  of  his 
tools,  knows  that  he  is  able,  and  neither  hurries 
nor  worries,  but  works  and  waits.  The  rank 
weed  shoots  up  in  a  day  and  as  quickly  dies; 
but  the  long-growing  olive-tree  stands  from 
century  to  century,  and  drops  from  its  gently 
waving    boughs    ripe    fruit   through    the    quiet 


THE   HIGHER  EDUCATION.  23 1 

autumn  air.  The  Church  endures  forever;  and 
we  American  Catholics,  in  the  midst  of  our 
rapidly-moving  and  ever-changing  society,  should 
be  the  first  to  learn  to  temper  energy  with  the 
patient  strength  which  gives  the  courage  to  toil 
and  wait  through  a  long  life,  if  so  we  make  our- 
selves worthy  to  speak  some  fit  word  or  do  some 
needful  deed.  And  to  whom  shall  this  lesson 
first  be  taught  if  not  to  the  clerics,  whose  natural 
endowments  single  them  out  as  future  leaders 
of  Catholic  thought  and  enterprise ;  and  where 
can  this  lesson  so  well  be  learned  as  in  a  school 
whose  standard  of  intellectual  excellence  shall 
be  the  highest? 

While  we  look,  therefore,  to  the  founding  of 
a  true  university,  we  will  begin,  as  the  univer- 
sity of  Paris  began  in  the  twelfth  century,  and 
as  the  present  university  of  Louvain  began 
fifty  years  ago,  with  a  national  school  of  philos- 
ophy and  theology,  which  will  form  the  central 
faculty  of  a  complete  educational  organism. 
Around  this,  the  other  faculties  will  take  their 
places,  in  due  course  of  time  ;  and  so  the  begin- 
ning which  we  make  will  grow,  until  like  the 
seed  planted  in  the  earth,  it  shall  wear  the 
bloomy  crown  of  its  own  development. 

And  though  the  event  be  less  than  our  hope, 
though  even  failure  be  the  outcome,  is  it  not 
better  to  fail  than  not  to  attempt  a  worthy  work 


232       MEANS  AND  ENDS  OF  EDUCATION. 

which  might  be  ours?  Only  they  who  do  noth- 
ing derive  comfort  from  the  mistakes  of  others ; 
and  the  saying  that  a  blunder  is  worse  than  a 
crime  is  doubtless  true  for  those  who  have  no 
other  measure  of  worth  and  success  than  the 
conventional  standards  of  a  superficial  public 
opinion.     We  at  least  know  — 

"  There  lives  a  Judge 
To  whose  all-pondering  mind  a  noble  aim 
Faithfully  kept  is  as  a  noble  deed ; 
In  whose  pure  sight  all  virtue  doth  succeed." 


THE   END. 


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CAYLORO 

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